,„  tii 

'    h 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY    STUDIES   IN   ENGLISH 
AND  COMPARATIVE  LITERATURE 


THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
SALES  AGENTS 

NEW  YORK: 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-32  WEST  27TH  SREET 

LONDON: 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
AMEN  CORNER,  E.G. 


VOICE-PHOTOGRAPHS 


The  syllable  "tab,"  photographed  Aug.  14,  1915.  The  higher  summits 
of  the  time-line  are  approximately  one  sixtieth  of  a  second  apart.  The 
negative  has  been  slightly  reinforced  by  the  engraver. 


A  A  A  A  A 

<    *  * 


"Ah"  —  film  at  slow  speed  —  photographed  July  25,  1915. 
of  roughness  in  the  tone  is  recorded  near  the  center. 


A  moment 


"  Top!  Top!",  from  the  test  for  sense  of  rhythmic  "  swing."   Part  of  the 
record  of  Observer  No.  4.    (See  Chapter  III.) 


THE 

RHYTHM   OF   PROSE 


AN    EXPERIMENTAL   INVESTIGATION    OF 

INDIVIDUAL    DIFFERENCE    IN 

THE    SENSE    OF    RHYTHM 


BY 
WILLIAM  MORRISON  PATTERSON,   PH.D. 

INSTRUCTOR  IN  ENGLISH  IN   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY 

SECOND  EDITION 


J13eto  gork 

COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 
1917 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1916 
BY  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


Printed  from  type,  December,  1916 


College 
Library 

BF 


TO 

D.  M.  P. 
M.  R.  L.  P. 

AND 

C.  B.  A. 


1343296 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  English  and  Comparative  Literature  in  Columbia 
University  as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  worthy  of 
publication. 

A.  H.  THORNDIKE, 

Executive  Officer. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

WHAT  is  prose  and  what  is  verse?  Aristotle  and  Diony- 
sius  of  Halicarnassus,  Cicero  and  Quintilian,  Professor 
Saintsbury  and  Professor  Sievers,  have  all  tried  to  tell  us. 
No  one  yet,  however,  seems  to  be  quite  sure.  Free  verse 
and  "poetic  prose"  are  the  disturbing  ghosts  which  inter- 
pose their  ambiguous  outlines  in  the  way  of  a  decision. 
But,  apart  from  this,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  student 
who  dips,  or,  more  boldly,  dives  into  the  inevitable  chapter 
on  rhythm  to  be  found  in  current  musical  hand-books, 
rhetorics,  treatises  about  versification,  etc.,  emerges  mys- 
tified, when  so  little  account  is  taken  of  individual  differ- 
ence in  what  is  one  of  the  most  "individually  different" 
of  human  experiences?  Rhythm  is  tangled  up  with  our 
sense  of  time  and  our  sense  of  intensity,  both  of  which  are 
not  only  tricky,  but  multifarious.  Nothing  is  more  pre- 
posterous, therefore,  than  that  an  author,  the  organization 
of  whose  temporal  impressions  is  confessedly  vague,  should 
undertake  to  present  to  humanity  at  large  a  comprehensive 
and  final  statement  of  the  art  of  versification.  His  own 
particular  code  might  easily  be  read  with  interest  as  a 
document,  but  could  hardly  be  expected  to  serve  as  a 
universal  guide.  On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  equally 
misleading  for  the  experiences  of  an  aggressively  rhythmic 
individual,  with  a  relatively  accurate  sense  of  temporal 
values,  strong  motor  reactions,  and  subtle  powers  of  dis- 
crimination in  pitch  and  stress,  to  be  set  forth  as  if  they  were 
thoroughly  usual.  The  psychologists  have  long  since  recog- 
nized that  rhythm  is  the  result  of  a  complex  process,  whose 
operation  can  never  be  reduced  to  any  one  short  formula. 

fa 


X  PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION 

Inasmuch  as  the  writer  felt  convinced  that  a  clear  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  prose  rhythm  would  depend  upon 
experimental  data,  obtained  under  carefully  regulated 
conditions,  the  main  text  of  the  present  book  was  not 
composed  until  after  a  series  of  experiments,  described  in 
Appendices  I,  II,  and  III,  had  been  performed  upon  a 
group  of  twelve  subjects,  most  of  whom  were  trained  ob- 
servers, connected  with  the  Department  of  Psychology  at 
Columbia.  Preliminary  experiments  upon  an  entirely 
different  set  of  observers  had  already  been  completed 
during  the  summer  of  1915.  The  regular  tests  were  given 
in  the  sound-room  of  the  Department  of  Psychology,  and 
in  a  fairly  sound-proof  cabinet,  specially  constructed  under 
the  supervision  of  Professor  Pegram  of  the  Department  of 
Physics.  In  this  cabinet  was  installed  apparatus  for  photo- 
graphing the  vibrations  of  the  human  voice.  The  object 
of  the  investigation  was  to  determine  individual  difference 
in  rhythmic  experience  and  performance,  with  the  particular 
hope  of  ascertaining  facts  that  would  lead  toward  a  better 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  prose  rhythm. 

Out  of  the  facts,  more  or  less  accurately  established, 
there  has  appeared  the  needed  explanation.  Past  theoreti- 
cal tangles  are  now  seen  to  be  due  chiefly  to  a  failure  to 
take  sufficiently  into  account  individual  difference  in  the 
complex  of  actual  rhythmic  experience;  and  a  foundation 
is  laid,  based  on  experimental  data,  upon  which,  it  is 
hoped,  duly  flexible  systems,  either  of  versification  or  of 
prose  rhythm,  can  safely  be  erected.  Most  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  have  already  been  authenticated  by 
previous  investigators.  Rhythm  is  thus  regarded  as  first 
of  all  an  experience,  established,  as  a  rule,  by  motor 
performance,  of  however  rudimentary  a  nature.1  Only 


1  Ruckmich,  C.  A.,  The  role  of  kinoesthesis  in  the  perception  of  rhythm, 
Amer.  J.  of  Pay. ,  XXIV,  1913. 


PREFACE    TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION  xi 

in  a  transferred  sense  (as  potential)  can  rhythm  be  said 
to  exist  on  the  printed  page  of  a  text. 

Of  the  six  chapters  in  the  present  book,  Chapter  II, 
"Historical  Survey,"  is  primarily  intended  for  psycholo- 
gists; but  the  account  of  Squire's  "Genetic  Study  of 
Rhythm,"  and  the  brief  reviews  of  Meumann,  Wallin, 
MacDougall,  Wundt,  Verrier,  Sievers,  Schipper,  and 
Thomson  should  not  be  omitted  by  the  literary  student. 
Chapter  III,  "The  Sense  of  Swing,"  is  chiefly  of  interest  to 
psychologists  and  to  musicians.  Chapter  IV,  "Rhythmic 
Tunes,"  is  indispensable  to  a  real  understanding  of  the 
subject,  as  it  contains  a  detailed  description  of  a  "timer's" 
experience  with  regard  to  a  sentence  by  Walter  Pater. 
The  musician  should  read  Chapters  I  and  III,  the  larger 
part  of  Chapter  IV,  and  the  first  nineteen  conclusions 
listed  in  Chapter  VI.  It  is  necessary  to  urge  every  reader, 
however,  to  obtain  as  clear  as  possible  an  understanding 
of  "unitary  pulses,"  "elastic  units,"  "syncopation,"  "spon- 
taneous substitution,"  and  "rhythmic  tunes."  These 
terms  are  explained  and  discussed  in  various  parts  of  the 
book,  as  shown  by  the  references  in  the  Index.  The 
appendices  contain  a  condensed  description  of  the  actual 
experiments,  and  brief  comments  upon  their  significance. 
The  "Introductory  Outline,"  which  precedes  Chapter  I, 
gives  a  short  review  of  the  whole  situation. 

The  present  experiments  were  facilitated  by  the  kindness 
of  Professors  Cattell  and  Woodworth  of  the  Department 
of  Psychology  at  Columbia,  and  especially  by  the  material 
assistance  of  Professor  Pegram  of  the  Department  of 
Physics,  without  whom  the  apparatus  for  voice-photography 
could  never  have  been  constructed.  Obligations  are  due  to 
Professor  Woodworth,  Professor  Hollingworth,  Dr.  Poffen- 
berger,  Mr.  E.  B.  Kinney  of  New  York,  and  others  who 
compose  the  group  of  observers  that  were  tested.  The 
author  is  especially  indebted  to  Professor  Krapp  of  the 


xii  PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION 

English  Department,  under  whose  general  supervision  the 
work  was  undertaken,  and  whose  sympathetic  interest  in 
the  whole  investigation  is  deeply  valued.  He  is  likewise 
indebted  to  Professor  Lawrence  and  Professor  Fletcher  for 
reading  the  manuscript,  and  for  help  in  other  ways.  Valu- 
able suggestions  were  received  from  Professor  Thorndike, 
Professor  Todd  of  the  Department  of  Romance  Languages, 
and  Professor  Boas  of  the  Department  of  Anthropology  at 
Columbia;  also,  from  Professor  Baird  of  Clark  University, 
and  Professor  Sabine  of  Harvard. 

W.  MORRISON  PATTERSON 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY, 

May  1,  1916 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

Miss  AMY  LOWELL'S  generous  readiness  to  deliver,  in  the 
author's  photographing  laboratory,  readings  of  what  she 
considers  typical  vers  libre,  has  resulted  in  objective  meas- 
urements which  indicate  interesting  progressive  changes  in 
the  temporal  intervals  from  one  chief  accent  to  another, 
but  nothing,  as  yet,  which  indicates  a  difference,  in  kind 
between  the  "cadences"  of  this  vers  libre  and  those  of  emo- 
tional prose.  Does  there  exist,  then,  a  difference  in  degree? 
These  recent  experiments  have  been  of  too  brief  a  nature  to 
warrant  any  final  conclusions;  but  the  author,  after  hearing 
Miss  Lowell's  effective  delivery  of  her  own  compositions, 
might  state  his  view  of  the  question  at  issue  as  follows: 

The  segregation  of  the  phrases  in  VERS  LIBRE,  produced 
by  printing  them  on  separate  lines,  serves  chiefly  as  a  means  of 
keeping  the  focus  of  attention  upon  the  RHYTHM  AS  RHYTHM, 
affecting  thus  both  silent  reading  and  oral  delivery.  This 
"rhythm"  held  before  our  attention  is  not  so  much  the 
fundamental  rhythmic  experience,  felt  as  prose  or  verse, 
but  rather  the  secondary  or  broader  rhythmic  grouping,  in 


PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND   EDITION  xiii 

which  phrases,  long  and  short,  are  balanced  against  each 
other,  according  to  that  native  instinct  by  means  of  which 
we  complacently  make  two  and  two  equal  five,  so  far  as 
interest  is  concerned.  To  the  hunter  the  fleeing  fox  weighs 
as  much  as  the  cows  blocking  his  way.  When  once  the 
game  of  literary  balancing  is  introduced,  the  separate  spac- 
ing of  the  phrases  in  free  verse  reminds  us,  gently  but  inevi- 
tably: -"This  is  a  phrase!  This  is  a  phrase!"  In  spite  of 
this  fact,  have  we  attained  to  anything  that  lifts  us  neces- 
sarily out  of  prose  experience?  What  is  achieved,  as  a  rule, 
in  Miss  Lowell's  case,  is  emotional  prose,  emphatically 
phrased,  excellent  and  moving.  "Spaced  prose,"  we  may 
call  it.  With  other  writers  the  result  is  often  merely 
unrhymed  verse,  with  irregular  length  of  line;  or,  as  is 
frequently  apparent  in  the  writings  of  Edgar  Lee  Masters, 
a  mosaic  of  bits  of  verse  and  bits  of  prose  experience. 

Miss  Lowell  delivers  her  vers  libre  with  much  more  swing 
and  vim  than  one  commonly  hears  in  prose;  but  surely  all 
particularly  vigorous  prose,  if  it  is  to  be  valued  as  a  fit 
medium  for  vigorous  thought  and  feeling,  must  also  be  thus 
delivered.  Colonel  Roosevelt,  in  fact,  delivers  his  own 
prose  with  just  as  much  " stress"  and  with  just  as  much 
"curve"  — to  use  Miss  Lowell's  defining  terms  in  her  ac- 
count of  vers  libre  —  as  Miss  Lowell  contributes  to  her 
"free  verse."  Where,  then,  is  the  preferential  difference  as 
to  form?  If  there  is  any  difference  in  degree  of  stress,  the 
intensity  is  undoubtedly  more  pronounced  in  the  delivery 
of  Colonel  Roosevelt.  When  we  hear  him  repeat  the  follow- 
ing sentence  from  his  History  as  Literature: 

"The  squat,  slit-eyed,  brawny  horse-bowmen  drew  a  red 
furrow  across  Hungary"; 

or,  out  of  his  African  Game  Trails,  this: 

"The  dim,  yellow  smear  in  the  yellow-brown  grass  was  a 
lion," 


xiv  PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND   EDITION 

the  effect  is  fittingly  big.  To  space  in  separate  lines 
the  phrases  in  these  sentences  would,  indeed,  draw  a 
"red  furrow"  of  self-consciousness  around  the  rhythm  as 
rhythm;  but  would  not  this  very  process  reduce  to  a  corre- 
spondingly "dim  smear"  Colonel  Roosevelt's  splendid 
spontaneity? 

W.  M.  P. 
March  31,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE 

The  Indian's  keen  sense  of  rhythm.  —  A  lost  art.  —  Aggress-  Page 
ively  rhythmic  timers.  —  Their  ability  to  organize  subjec- 
tively any  haphazard  series.  —  Prose  as  a  more  or  less 
haphazard  series  of  sounds.  —  Who  is  aggressive?  —  The 
importance  of  an  accurate  sense  of  tune.  —  The  sense  of 
"swing."  —  Facility  and  pleasure  in  automatic  syncopation. 

—  The  ability  to  evoke  a  series  of  subjective  time-measuring 
pulses.  —  The  limitations  of  a  typical  "stresser."  —  Unitary 
pulses  as  an  explanatory  factor  in  music  and  folk-dancing.  — 
Ease,  spontaneity,  and  fitness,  as  standards  of  excellence  in 
comparing  rhythmic  experiences.  —  Clear-cut  rhythmic  ex- 
perience impossible  without  a  subjective  scale  of  time.  — 
Such  a  scale  to  be  found  in  elastic  unitary  pulses.  —  The 
subjective  organization  of  all  experience  according  to  this 
theory xxi 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  NEW  STANDAKD 

The  interest  of  the  problem.  —  Wundt's  suggestion.  —  The 
present  experiments  described.  —  The  spontaneous  creation 
of  a  rhythmic  tune  as  a  factor  in  the  subjective  organization 
of  irregular  sequences.  —  Motor  response.  —  Meumann  and 
Wundt.  —  Their  failure  to  recognize  the  importance  of 
"elastic"  units,  spontaneous  substitution,  and  syncopation. 

—  Syncopation  explained.  —  Complicated  syncopating  tasks 
accomplished  by  observers  with  very  little  musical  training. 

—  The  secret  of  such  accomplishment.  —  Primitive  rhythmic 
sense.  —  The  principle  of  "occult  balance."  —  Spontaneous 
substitution  explained.  —  Sievers.  —  His  neglect  of  syncopa- 
tion. —  Individual  difference.  —  Observer  No.  7  contrasted 
with  Observer  No.  10.  —  The  codrdination  theory  illustrated. 

xv 


xvi  CONTENTS 

—  The  walking-step.  —  Its  unduly  regulating  influence.  —  Page 
The  endless  possibilities  of  accelerating  and  retarding  units, 
substitution,  and  syncopation.  —  Wundt's  suggestion  experi- 
mentally established  with  certain  limitations.  —  The  experi- 
ence of  aggressive  timers  the  basis  of  a  new  standard  for 
discussing  the  rhythm  of  prose.  —  Stress-patterns  subordi- 
nate to  the  time-patterns  which  they  help  to  mark.  —  Motor 
response  the  test  of  rhythm  in  prose.  —  Prose  rhythm  a 
consistent,  more  or  less  clear-cut,  "unified"  experience  for 
an  aggressive  timer 1 


CHAPTER    II 
HISTORICAL  SURVEY 

Brucke's  experiments  vitiated.  —  Bolton's  comprehensive  study. 

—  Meumann's  signal  contribution.  —  Binet  and  Courtier's 
musical  studies.  —  Sievers.  —  His  objection  to  experimental 
phonetics  obviated  by  recourse  to  sound  photography.  —  His 
theories  on    speech-melody  unsubstantiated  by  convincing 
data.  —  Flat  contradiction  between  his  fundamental  empha- 
sis upon  the  time-element  in  connection  with  rhythm  and  the 
application  of  his  two-beat  theory  for  old  English  verse.  — 
Wallin's  interesting  experiments  with  Tennyson  and  Brown- 
ing. —  MacDougalTs    subordination   of   stress   in   rhythmic 
experience.  —  Stetson's  motor  theory  of  rhythm,  involving 
the  activity  of  two  opposing  sets  of  muscles.  —  Bingham's 
motor   theory   for   melody.  —  Scripture.  —  Inaccuracy   con- 
nected with  phonograph  records.  —  The  rhythm  of  work.  — 
Bucher  and  Miss  Smith.  —  Squire's  genetic  study  of  rhythm. 

—  The    validity    of    unitary    pulses.  —  Time    the    basis    of 
rhythm.  —  Marbe  and  Lipsky.  —  Their  method  superficial. 

—  Brown.  —  Rhythm  primarily  temporal.  —  Wundt.  —  Sen- 
sations in  the  joints  and  muscles  as  the  primary  origin  of 
time-images.  —  All  life  upon  a  basis  of  vibration.  —  Possi- 
bility of  considering  all  irregular  movements  as  rhythmic 
fragments.  —  Benussi's  three  factors  in  time-perception.  — 
Vender's  belief  in  a  natural  rhythm  or  "vocal  step"  for  each 
person.  —  Landry's  discussion  of  "weight."  —  Saran's  criti- 
cism of  Sievers  for  confusing  rhythm  and  accent.  —  Artistic 
prose  regarded  by  Saran  as  chiefly  "rhythmless."  —  Schipper 
and  Sievers  involved  in  contradiction  between  their  defini- 


CONTENTS  XVH 

tions  of  rhythm  and  their  application  of  Sievers's  five  Page 
"types"  in  connection  with  Old  English  verse.  —  Saints- 
bury's  self-confessed  defeat.  —  Ruckmich's  valuable  con- 
tribution. —  Weld's  study  of  musical  enjoyment.  —  Sea- 
shore. —  Thomson's  criticism  of  Lanier.  —  Unitary  pulses.  — 
Neglect  of  individual  difference  in  the  sense  of  rhythm  the 
cause  of  past  confusion 17 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  SENSE  OF  SWING 

Elasticity  explained  as  acceleration  followed  by  compensative 
retarding,  or  vice  versa.  —  Progressive  motion.  —  No  one 
sense  of  rhythm.  —  Novelty  of  an  objective  test  for  the  sense 
of  swing  or  the  power  to  gauge  progressive  movement.  — 
Time-intervals  considered  in  terms  of  velocity.  —  Illustration 
with  a  stick  and  a  steam-radiator.  —  Description  of  the 
laboratory  test  for  swing.  —  Various  mental  processes  in- 
volved. —  Graphs  of  the  performance  of  certain  individuals. 
—  The  sense  of  swing  as  an  element  in  aggressively  rhythmic 
endowment.  —  Tempo  rubato 47 


CHAPTER   IV 

RHYTHMIC  TUNES 

Illustration  with  a  sentence  from  Walter  Pater.  —  Typical 
schedules  of  the  corresponding  rhythmic  tunes.  —  Observer 
No.  7's  experience  with  haphazard  series  of  drum-taps.  — 
Detailed  description  of  a  rhythmic  experience  in  connection 
with  the  passage  from  Pater.  —  Unitary  pulses  marked  by 
a  series  of  what  appear  to  be  muscular  tensions.  —  Breath 
phenomena.  —  Suggestions  received  from  the  text.  —  From 
stress-patterns.  —  The  line  of  least  resistance.  —  Automatic 
syncopation.  —  Occurrence  of  pulses  seldom  coincident  with 
accented  syllables.  —  The  drum-beat  tune  merely  one  ele- 
ment in  a  larger  fusion.  —  Spontaneous  substitution  again 
explained.  —  The  coordination  theory  illustrated  by  a  regular 
series  of  sounds  concomitant  with  an  irregular  series.  —  Il- 
lustration from  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott.  —  Ratan  Devi.  — 
Schumann's  "Traumerei."  62 


xviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V 
VEBS  LIBRE 

Distinction  between  prose  and  verse.  —  Typical  prose-intervals  Page 
more  or  less  irregular,  but  susceptible  of  subjective  organiza- 
tion by  an  aggressively  rhythmic  timer.  —  Influence  of 
stress-patterns.  —  Predominantly  syncopating  relations  be- 
tween the  unitary  pulses  and  accented  syllables  in  the  text 
the  condition  of  prose  experience.  —  Predominantly  coinci- 
dent relations  the  condition  of  verse  experience.  —  Synco- 
pation and  coincidence  the  only  relations  possible.  —  No 
tertium  quid,  therefore,  between  verse  and  prose  except 
confusion  (when  coordination  ceases)  or  a  bald  mosaic  .  .  74 

CHAPTER  VI 
CONCLUSION 

Prose  rhythm  not  an  elusive  experience  for  the  aggressively 
rhythmic  person.  —  Mistaken  ideas  about  prose  rhythm.  — 
Discriminative  time-sense  necessary  for  the  valuation  of 
movement.  —  Body-rhythm  and  body-balance  distinguished. 
—  Timers  and  stressers.  —  Sievers  and  Schipper  both  incon- 
sistent. —  Hidden  symmetry.  —  The  rhythm  of  thought 
according  to  the  coordination  theory.  —  Possibilities  of 
speed-change  increased  in  the  rate  of  the  measuring  pulses.  — 
General  results  of  the  investigation.  —  A  new  definition  of 
rhythmic  experience  for  each  individual.  —  A  rough  descrip- 
tion of  the  experience  of  a  timer.  —  Wundt's  statement  ex- 
perimentally established  within  certain  limits.  —  No  series 
of  impressions  that  cannot  be  conceived  as  rhythmic.  — 
Ease,  spontaneity,  and  fitness  as  literary  standards  of 
rhythmic  excellence.  —  Predominance  of  syncopation  the 
criterion  of  prose  experience.  —  Predominance  of  coincidence 
the  criterion  of  verse  experience.  —  Syncopation  and  sub- 
stitution explained.  —  Accent.  —  "Aggressively  rhythmic" 
explained.  —  Observers  classified.  —  Importance  of  rhythmic 
tunes  in  subjective  organization  of  haphazard  material.  — 
Mistaken  ideas  about  the  "development"  of  prose  rhythm. 
— "Possibility  scanning." —  No  scientific  basis  for  the  applica- 
tion of  speech-melody  to  textual  criticism.  —  Application  of 


CONTENTS  xix 

the  standards  of  ease,  spontaneity,  and  fitness.  —  Caprice,  Page 
economy,  and  artistic  adjustment  as  motives.  —  Application 
to  rhetoric.  —  To  literary  criticism.  —  Importance  of  motor 
response  as  a  test.  —  The  ease  with  which  rhythmic  sense 
may  be  developed.  —  Practice  in  syncopation  the  secret  .    .       81 


APPENDIX  I 
DESCRIPTION  OF  APPARATUS 

Two  laboratories.  —  Construction  of  apparatus  for  securing 
photographs  of  sound.  —  New  arrangement  of  lights.  — 
Setting  of  mercury  contacts  for  objective  test  of  ability  to 
gauge  progressive  movement  . 103 

APPENDIX  II 

EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE 
Table  of  contents.  —  Thirty-four  steps 107 

APPENDIX  III 
EXPERIMENTAL  DATA 

Introductory  note.  —  List  of  observers.  —  Pulse  and  breath.  — 
Types  of  mental  imagery.  —  Ability  to  keep  time  (unit- 
accuracy). —  Test  for  sense  of  swing.  —  Walking-rate. — 
Test  for  pitch  memory.  —  Other  memory  tests.  —  Records 
obtained  by  sound-photography.  —  Syncopation  tests.  — 
Tests  with  haphazard  series  of  drum-beats.  —  Unitary  music. 
—  Unitary  pulses.  —  Factors  in  organizing  drum-beat  series  129 

ABBREVIATIONS 179 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 

INDEX  .  189 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE 

THE  music  of  contemporary  savages,  such  as  that  of 
the  Kwakiutl,  investigated  by  Professor  Boas,1  taunts  us 
with  a  lost  art  of  rhythm.  Modern  sophistication  has 
inhibited  many  native  instincts,  and  the  mere  fact  that 
our  conventional  dignity  usually  forbids  us  to  sway  our 
bodies  or  to  tap  our  feet  when  we  hear  effective  music, 
has  deprived  us  of  unsuspected  pleasures.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  facility  of  the  American  Indian  in  the  execution 
of  syncopating  rhythms  is  matched  in  most  of  us  by  a 
thoroughly  blunted  process,  characterized  by  hesitation 
and  awkwardness.  Any  attempt,  accordingly,  to  regain  an 
instinctive  grasp  over  rhythmic  problems,  such  as  we  may 
readily  believe  was  possessed  by  our  primitive  ancestors, 
is  quite  hopeless,  until  we  revert  to  the  testimony  of  naive 
experience,  and  the  progressive  results  of  actual  motor 
performance. 

The  significant  fact  to  be  gleaned  from  the  experimental 
data  listed  in  Appendix  III  is  that  the  most  comprehensive 
form  of  rhythmic  experience  occurs  with  individuals  like 
Observer  No.  7,  a  professional  musician,  whose  mental  and 
physical  reactions  may  be  described  as  "aggressively" 
rhythmic.2  Such  persons  are  capable  of  feeling  a  con- 
sistent and  continuous  experience  of  organized  rhythm 
when  confronted  with  haphazard  series  of  sounds  of  any 
nature  (within  the  limits  of  "time-discrimination  thresh- 
olds" and  "attention  spans").  The  impressions  of 
accented  and  unaccented  "syllables"  in  freely  uttered 

1  Boas,  F.,  The  Kwakiutl  Indians,  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.  Rep.  for  1895. 
8  Of  course,   no   two  individuals  ever  react  exactly  alike.     The 
term  "type"  is  in  many  ways  a  highly  misleading  fiction. 

xxi 


xxii  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE 

prose  usually  suggest  haphazard  arrangement.  To  the 
aggressively  rhythmic  person  a  passage  of  spoken  prose, 
whose  measured  intervals  (between  accents)  display  the 
utmost  objective  irregularity,  can  be  organized  subjectively 
and  give  pleasure  according  to  the  varying  facility  of  the 
process  and  the  varying  emotional  suggestiveness  attending 
it.  To  those  who  are  deficient  in  rhythmic  aggressiveness, 
such  a  haphazard  series  frequently  produces  vague  "im- 
pressions" of  elusive  rhythm,  but  never  the  consistent, 
more  or  less  complete  experience  possible  to  the  opposite 
class. 

Who,  then,  is  "aggressive"?  The  man  who  exactly 
remembers  definite  words  he  has  uttered  or  precise  move- 
ments he  has  executed  in  his  dreams;  who  can  not  only 
hear  the  puffs  of  a  locomotive,  when  they  happen  to  be 
objectively  even,  group  themselves  subjectively  into  a  tune 
of  two's  or  four's,  but  who  can  also  change  this  tune  at 
will;  who  can  keep  strict  time  when  he  chooses,  but  whose 
confident  sense  of  "swing"  allows  him  also  to  gauge  and 
enjoy  progressive  acceleration  and  retarding;  who  finds 
syncopation 3  pleasant  and  easy;  and,  finally,  who  can 
summon  without  effort,  like  the  Indian,  an  inner  series 
of  time-beats,  "elastic"4  because  capable  of  accelerating 
or  retarding,  and  "unitary"  because  not  necessarily  grouped 
in  a  succession  of  two's  or  three's.  With  these  "elastic 
unitary  pulses"  any  haphazard  series,  by  means  of  syn- 
copation, can  be  readily,  because  instinctively,  coordinated. 
The  result  is  that  a  "rhythmic  tune,"  compounded  of  time 
and  stress  and  pitch  relations,  is  created,  the  chief  char- 

*  By  syncopation  is  meant  the  correlation  of  at  least  two  sets 
of  time-intervals,  concomitant  but  not  coincident  —  as  when  a  negro 
dancer  taps  with  his  feet  just  half-way  between  the  hand-claps  of 
those  who  are  accompanying  his  performance.  More  complicated 
forms  occur  when  an  Indian  sings  a  melody  in  three-tune,  against 
a  tom-tom  accompaniment  in  four-time,  etc. 

4  For  a  discussion  of  "elasticity"  see  beginning  of  Chapter  III. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE  xxiii 

acteristic  of  which  is  likely  to  be  complicated  syncopation. 
An  arabesque  of  accentual  differences,  group-forming  in 
their  nature,  is  superimposed  upon  the  fundamental  time- 
divisions. 

To  the  person  who  cannot  easily  evoke  a  subjective 
series  of  time-measuring  pulses,  such  as  appear  objectively 
in  the  American  Indian's  "pulsation  of  the  voice  on  sus- 
tained notes, " 6  rhythmic  experience  must  continue  to  be 
chiefly  concerned  with  alternation  of  stress,  and  the 
patterns  of  "metre"  familiar  in  routine  scanning.  In 
place  of  the  relatively  clear-cut  temporal  experiences  of  the 
aggressively  rhythmic  mind,  wherein  stress  has  an  indis- 
pensable yet  not  overestimated  function,  he  substitutes  a 
reaction,  capable  of  vigor,  but  innocent  of  subtlety;  for 
the  discrimination  and  measurement  of  intensity  is  ac- 
knowledged by  physicists,  physiologists  and  psychologists, 
as  the  chief  snag  in  objective  valuations.  Our  perception 
of  time  is  blurred  enough,  but  our  perception  of  exact 
degrees  of  stress  is  hopelessly  inaccurate.  It  turns  out, 
therefore,  that  the  "stresser,"  even  in  his  own  department 
of  interest,  is  likely  to  rank  below  the  aggressive  "timer" 
with  regard  to  precision. 

In  considering  unitary  pulses  it  may  prove  of  assistance 
to  examine  our  experience  in  listening  to  Schumann's 
"Traumerei,"  while  attempting  to  beat  time  to  it  regard- 
less of  the  printed  notation.  We  need  not  be  astonished 
to  find  that  from  the  first  to  the  second  chief  accent  in 
the  melody  five  quarter-note  pulses  occur.  This  group  of 
five  beats  is  followed  by  phrases  which  may  be  felt  either 
as  groupings  of  six,  five,  five,  etc.,  or  as  groupings  of  four, 
four,  three,  five,  etc.  Here  is  a  piece  of  music,  the  uni- 
versally popular  appeal  of  which  is  unquestioned,  that 
shifts  its  successive  grouping  rapidly.  The  unifying 
temporal  element  is  the  series  of  subjective  quarter-note 
1  Curtis,  N.,  The  Indian's  book,  N.  Y.,  1907,  p.  xxvii. 


xxiv  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE 

beats  or  unitary  pulses,  regardless  of  the  size  of  the  clusters 
into  which  they  are  grouped,  since  these  are  significant 
only  in  the  broader  effects  of  phrasing.  This  principle 
furnishes  a  key  to  many  previously  unanswered  problems. 
On  no  other  basis,  for  instance,  can  the  sudden  shifts  of 
measure  in  folk-dancing  be  explained.  Such  shifts  are 
known  among  all  races.  They  are  "an  unmistakable 
characteristic,"  says  Steenstrup,6  "of  the  music  of  olden 
times,  especially  of  folk-music."  As  a  modern  example,  he 
cites  the  dancing  of  the  peasants  of  Oberpfalz,  which 
changes  rapidly,  back  and  forth,  between  three-time  and 
four-time.  Whatever  varied  effects  of  stress-grouping  may 
be  superimposed,  the  primary  binding  element,  unfailingly 
potential  in  the  aggressively  rhythmic  consciousness,  is  a 
series  of  more  or  less  elastic  unitary  pulses.  But,  of  course, 
our  conventional  notation  continues  to  cloud  all  such 
issues. 

Prose  rhythm  must  always  be  classed  as  subjective 
organization  of  irregular,  virtually  haphazard,  arrange- 
ments of  sound.7  The  experience,  when  judged  by  a 
standard  of  excellence,  implies  a  requisite  of  fitness  between 
thought  and  movement,  in  addition  to  ease  and  spontane- 
ity. This  appropriateness  does  not  figure  in  the  subjective 
organization  of  a  haphazard  series  of  drum-beats  or  of 
purely  musical  sounds.  The  ultimate  basis  of  all  rhythmic 
experience,  however,  is  the  same.  To  be  clear-cut,  it  must 
rest  upon  a  series  of  definite  temporal  units.  When  once 
we  have  established  ease  in  the  institution  of  unitary 
pulses,  whose  progressive  accelerating  and  retarding  we  can 

6  Steenstrup,  J.  C.  H.  R.,  The  medieval  popular  ballad,  trans,  by 
Cox,  E.  G.,  N.  Y.,  1914,  p.  165. 

T  For  a  "timer"  the  definition  of  prose  as  distinguished  from 
verse  experience  depends  upon  a  predominance  of  syncopation  over 
coincidence  in  the  coordination  of  the  accented  syllables  of  the  text 
with  the  measuring  pulses. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE  xxv 

gauge,  it  becomes  possible,  by  means  of  instinctive  syncopa- 
tion and  freely  operating  substitution,8  to  coordinate 
rhythmically  with  our  sense  of  time  all  the  movements  of 
our  every-day  existence.  The  dance  of  death  is  quite 
balanced  by  the  possibilities  of  a  dance  of  life. 

8  The  division  of  a  pulse-interval  into  several  equivalent  shorter 
intervals,  or  the  combination  of  several  unit  intervals  into  an  equiva- 
lent longer  interval.  According  to  this  latter  function  unitary  pulses 
may  appear  in  clusters  —  even  in  recurrent  clusters.  What  remains 
characteristic  of  them  is  that  the  progression  from  any  one  pulse  to 
the  next  is  felt  by  certain  observers  to  be  part  of  a  fundamental 
rhythmic  experience  underneath  the  grouping,  whatever  this  happens 
to  be.  Where  this  feeling  does  not  exist,  unitary  pulses,  with  a 
pleasurable  motor  reaction  of  their  own,  cannot  be  said  to  occur. 


THE    RHYTHM   OF    PEOSE 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   NEW   STANDARD 

MOST  of  us  respond  with  a  thrill  of  pleasure  to  the 
"occult  balance"  of  a  swiftly  moving  sail-boat,  tilted, 
between  strain  of  wind  and  weight  of  ballast,  at  some 
rakish  angle.  Unfortunately  for  science,  OUT  attention 
wanes  and  our  perceptions  blur  as  soon  as  we  attempt  to 
analyze  either  the  pleasure  or  the  "balance."  For  the 
layman,  the  promise  of  new  forms  of  pleasure  is  the  only 
successful  lure  to  assisting  at  such  an  investigation. 

The  tilt  of  rhythmic  experience  in  connection  with  prose 
is  likely  to  be  more  than  rakish;  there  are  times  when  to 
some  the  boat  seems  quite  on  the  awkward  edge  of  up- 
setting, and  even  when  the  going  is  at  its  best,  the  forces 
that  make  for  balance  are  so  obscure  that  the  average 
mind  resents  any  effort  to  single  them  out.  It  is  only  on 
the  chances  of  hitting  upon  some  new  savor  of  excitement 
that  even  the  literary  man  will  consent  to  prowl  within 
the  neighborhood  of  a  psychological  laboratory.  To  learn 
from  Wundt1  that  "no  series  of  impressions  is  possible 
that  cannot  in  some  way  be  comprehended  as  rhythmic" 
is  a  matter  of  small  concern  until  we  suddenly  discover 
that  by  listening  for  rhythm  in  irregular  sequences,  in  the 
criss-cross  lapping  of  many  waves  upon  the  shore,  in  the 
syncopating  cries  of  a  flock  of  birds,  in  the  accelerating 

1  Wundt,  W.,  Grundzuge  d.  physiolog.  Psychologic,  Leipzig,  1911, 
III,  p.  53. 

1 


2  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

and  retarding  quivers  of  a  wind-blown  tree,  we  have  found 
a  new  form  of  pleasure  that  embraces  in  its  field  every 
moment  of  our  conscious  life. 

The  first  object  of  the  present  experiments  2  was  to  find 
out,  as  far  as  possible,  how  a  group  of  twelve  people,  ten 
men  and  two  women,  differed  with  respect  to  the  complex 
of  mental  processes  usually  designated  roughly  as  the 
"sense  of  rhythm."  After  they  had  been  ranked  according 
to  the  nature  of  their  reactions  and  achievements  in  various 
tests,  one  of  the  group,  Observer  No.  1,  who  had  evinced 
a  measure  of  ease  in  rapid  tapping,  was  chosen  to  make 
drum-beat  records  on  a  phonograph.  A  sentence  from 
Walter  Pater,  a  sentence  from  Henry  James,  a  passage 
of  music  from  Chopin,  a  haphazard  arrangement  of  words, 
and  a  haphazard  arrangement  of  musical  notes,  were 
tapped  upon  a  small  metal  drum,  and  the  beats  recorded 
by  the  phonograph.  The  words  were  tapped  according 
to  the  syllables  as  felt,  a  tap  for  each  syllable.  "Hours," 
for  instance,  was  given  two  beats.  The  notes  were  tapped, 
as  far  as  possible,  according  to  their  designated  tune- 
values.  Observer  No.  1,  having  had  long  training  as  a 
musician,  found  no  technical  difficulty  in  the  task.  The 
remaining  eleven  observers,  without  being  told  the  source 
of  the  records,  heard  the  five  series  of  drum-beats,  and 
passed  judgment  upon  them.  The  most  significant  judg- 
ment made  was  that  of  Observer  No.  7,  who  declared  that 
all  five  records  gave  him  the  impression  of  regular  musical 
themes.  A  large  number  of  the  observers,  especially  on 
the  first  hearing,  found  all  of  the  records,  including  even 
the  passage  from  Chopin,  elusive  and  more  or  less  irregular. 
An  attempt  was  then  made,  by  means  of  accompanying 
schedules,  to  find  out  how  much  or  how  little  organization 
each  observer  could  be  brought  to  feel  in  the  beats  cor- 

2  For  a  detailed  account  of  the  experiments,  see  Appendices  I, 
II,  and  III. 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  3 

responding  to  the  passage  from  Walter  Pater,  and  the 
passage  of  haphazard  musical  notes. 

The  indications  are  that  for  many  observers  the  great 
secret  in  subjectively  organizing  what  objectively  appear 
to  be  irregular  sequences,  lies  in  the  spontaneous  or  sug- 
gested creation  of  a  "rhythmic  tune."  An  attempt  to 
hum  what  is  heard  or  the  hearing  of  humming  by  others 
helps  to  initiate  motor  response;  and  motor  response, 
whether  it  be  nodding  the  head,  or  moving  the  eyes,  the 
tongue,  or  the  throat,  or  beating  time  with  the  hands  or 
feet,  or  anything  else,  tends  to  fall  into  the  form  of  a 
series,  accompanying  the  humming  at  points  where  the 
possibility  of  regular  intervals  is  suggested.  It  is  a  com- 
monly accepted  fact  that  all  repeated  movement  tends 
thus  to  become  regular.3 

Here  is  where  we  strike  large  gaps  in  the  results  of  pre- 
vious investigations  (see  Chapter  II,  "Historical  Survey"). 
For  some  strange  reason,  even  Meumann  and  Wundt  fail 
to  keep  before  their  eyes  three  important  factors,  familiar 
to  every  musician:  first,  the  possibility  of  accelerating  or 
retarding  a  series  of  regular  motions  without  destroying 
the  impression  of  rhythm;  second,  the  possibility  of 
substituting  at  any  time  (i.e.,  spontaneously)  one  long 
time-interval  for  several  equivalent  short  ones,  or  vice 
versa;  third,  the  possibility  of  preserving  a  certain  series 
of  time-intervals,  but  of  changing  in  various  ways  the 
nature  of  the  motions  or  sensations  that  mark  the  beats. 
This  last  is  what  we  mean  by  syncopation.  To  be  sure, 
all  three  factors  are  mentioned,  especially  the  first  and 
second;  but  statements  are  constantly  made  in  which 
their  influence  is  neglected.  As  for  syncopation,  it  is 
usually  completely  forgotten. 

1  Scripture,  E.  W.,  Elements  of  experimental  phonetics,  N.  Y., 
1902,  p.  525;  see  also  Miyaki,  I.,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action, 
Yale  Psy.  St.,  X,  1902,  p.  4.  . 


4  THE  RHYTHM   OF  PROSE 

Syncopation,  in  itself,  involves  a  complex  of  mental 
processes.  The  most  essential  part  of  the  phenomenon 
seems  to  be  that  we  keep  our  impression  of  a  series  of 
subjective  time-intervals,  regular,  accelerating  or  retarding, 
but  find  a  pleasure  in  marking  the  beats  objectively, 
either  by  different  forms  of  motion,  such  as  foot-taps 
alternating  with  hand-taps,  or  by  what  appears  at  first  as 
an  omission  of  objective  marking  for  certain  beats.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  this  is  usually  nothing  but  the  interpolation 
of  some  concealed  form  of  motor  reaction,  such  as  an  eye, 
throat,  tongue,  or  breath  movement,  which  alternates  with 
a  more  visible  movement,  such  as  nodding  or  tapping  or 
dancing.  OUT  ability  to  syncopate  thus  depends  largely 
on  our  ability  to  coordinate.  It  is  also  possible  for  the 
impressions  usually  associated  with  syncopation  to  occur 
in  connection  with  a  train  of  mental  images.  In  order  to 
maintain  a  syncopating  scheme  successfully,  it  seems  to  be 
a  universal  experience  that  the  accents  dividing  the  series 
of  temporal  units  into  groups  should  be  strongly  marked. 
This  would  mean  that  when  the  last  beat  of  a  bar  of 
regular  musical  notation  is  tied  over  to  the  first  beat  of 
the  next  bar,  this  second  beat,  which  thus  loses  its  objective 
discreteness,  needs  to  be  very  firmly  felt  on  the  subjective 
side,  by  both  performer  and  listener.  The  rhythmic  con- 
sciousness in  rag-time  is  "tremendous."  4 

In  order  for  the  non-musical  person  to  understand  clearly 
what  is  meant  by  syncopation,  he  should  undertake  the 

*  * 

following  experiment:  Count  1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-  continu- 
ously to  yourself  with  an  accent  on  every  "1"  —  that  is, 
on  the  beginning  of  each  group  of  four.  After  about  ten 
seconds,  begin  to  tap  with  your  finger  on  a  table  every 
time  you  say  "2"  and  "4."  Internally  you  are  still  to 

4  Puffer,  E.  (Mrs.  Howes),  The  psychology  of  beauty,  Boston  and 
New  York,  1905,  p.  168. 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  5 

accent  every  "1."    This  is  a  simple  form  of  syncopation. 

*          * 

Now  try  a  more  difficult  one.  Count  1-2-3-1-2-3-,  etc.,  to 
yourself  with  an  accent  on  every  "1."  After  a  few  seconds, 
while  still  counting,  tap  your  finger  just  as  you  say  "1" 
and  just  after  you  say  "2."  You  will  then  be  making  a 
rough  approximation  to  beating  two-time  against  three- 
time —  that  is,  the  time-interval  which  you  are  dividing 
into  three  parts  by  suppressed  articulation,  you  are  dividing 
into  two  parts  by  your  finger-taps.  The  process  involves 
syncopation  because  the  motions  and  sensations,  or  images 
of  motions  and  sensations  by  means  of  which  you  mark 
the  time,  undergo  a  certain  amount  of  interchange  or 
alternation.  If  you  were  to  hear  another  person  tapping 
three's  with  one  hand  and  two's  with  the  other,  it  might 
be  possible  for  you  to  hear  the  result  in  the  form  of  a 
"rhythmic  tune"  in  which  you  felt  no  interchange  of 
motor  response  or  sound  sensation,  but  merely  heard  a 
series  of  taps,  differing  in  intensity  but  not  in  land, 
separated  by  intervals,  whose  size  depends  upon  the 
pattern  of  the  rhythmic  tune.  The  element  of  substitution 
mentioned  in  a  previous  paragraph  is  here  in  operation, 
but  the  true  syncopating  element  is  absent,  or,  at  any 
rate,  somewhat  disguised. 

The  importance,  however,  of  hearing  first  the  rhythmic 
tune  of  two's  against  three's,  performed  correctly  by 
another  person,  before  attempting  to  tap  two's  against 
counted  three's  (true  syncopation)  cannot  be  overestimated. 
As  a  result  of  the  experiments  described  later,6  the  writer 
has  found  that  it  is  possible  for  observers  with  virtually  no 
training  in  music  to  learn  very  quickly  to  tap  even  so 
complicated  a  syncopating  scheme  as  five  against  seven 
with  a  fair  degree  of  success,  provided  they  approach  the 
task,  not  as  a  mathematical  problem  involving  five  and 
*  Appendices  II  and  III,  section  xxiv  in  each  case. 


6  THE  RHYTHM   OF  PROSE 

seven  and  their  multiple,  thirty-five;  but  by  hearing  some 
one  else,  who  has  learned  to  do  it,  perform  the  rhythmic 
tune.  Actual  measurements  on  the  kymograph  show  that 
the  pattern  of  time-intervals,  if  heard  naively,  is  not 
difficult  to  reproduce.  By  humming  the  combination  as 
"one,  two-and,  three,  and-four,  five-and,  six,  and-seven,"  and 
learning  that  the  "and"  in  " two-and"  is  just  a  little 
closer  to  two  than  it  is  to  three,  that  the  "and"  in  "and- 
seven"  is  just  a  little  closer  to  seven  than  to  six,  and  that 
the  "and"  in  "and-four"  and  "five-and"  is  exactly  half 
as  far  away  from  its  respective  number  as  the  "and"  in 
"two-and,"  the  rhythmic  tune  is  ready  for  application  in 
the  form  of  syncopation.  While  the  observer,  having 
learned  the  tune  with  an  approximation  of  correctness, 
hums  the  counting  scheme,  he  taps  with  his  finger  every 
time  he  says  "one,"  and  every  time  he  says  "and."  The 
result  is  that  by  omitting  the  uttered  "and's"  and  tapping 
his  finger  in  their  place  he  is  beating  "five's"  against 
"seven's"  in  true  syncopating  fashion  without  necessarily 
knowing  it!  The  most  astonishing  part  of  the  performance 
is  that  if  the  observer  reproduces  the  rhythmic  tune 
correctly,  he  is  using  intervals  the  smallest  of  which  is  one 
thirty-fifth  of  the  distance  from  "one"  to  "one,"  the 
others  ranging  from  two  to  five  thirty-fifths.  This  means 
that,  without  realizing  it,  he  is  counting  in  thirty-fives. 
The  process  soon  becomes  automatic. 

This  would  all  seem  to  imply,  then,  that  the  mysterious 
awe  with  which  we  regard  the  rhythmic  proficiency  of 
some  of  our  American  Indians,  for  instance,  may  have  to 
be  lessened.  Our  astonishment  should  be  directed,  not  so 
much  at  their  having  perpetuated  what  is,  after  all,  a 
fairly  simple  trick,  as  at  our  own  stupidity  in  losing  the 
trick,  in  the  use  of  which,  for  all  we  can  guess  from  the 
ancient  records  of  our  East  Indian  cousins,  our  primitive 
drum-beating  ancestors  could  leave  the  Western  Indians 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  7 

far  behind.  Nevertheless,  speaking  of  the  music  of  the 
Omahas,  Fillmore  remarks6  that  in  "rich  variety  and  com- 
plexity of  rhythm"  it  "excels  most  of  our  civilized  music 
by  a  great  deal.  Our  most  elaborate  compositions  for 
orchestra  have  no  rhythms  more  difficult  or  more  complex 
than  have  these  short  songs;  and  our  popular  music  is 
incomparably  simpler  in  rhythm  than  is  the  popular  music 
of  the  Omahas." 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  note'd  that  in  the  regular 
experiments7  even  the  professional  musician,  Observer 
No.  7,  failed  utterly  at  the  task  of  beating  "five's"  against 
"seven's"  so  long  as  it  was  approached  from  the  purely 
numerical  basis;  on  the  other  hand,  there  were  very  few 
of  the  group  who  failed  within  twenty  minutes  to  reproduce 
with  a  measure  of  success  the  seven-five  rhythmic  tune 
at  a  moderate  tempo,  and  to  execute  the  syncopating 
performance  by  means  of  it.  The  measurements  listed  are 
for  their  achievement  at  a  fairly  rapid  rate  of  speed,  which 
reduced  the  number  of  successful  performances. 

The  way  in  which  primitive  man  could  have  developed 
such  facility  is  easy  to  imagine.  Two  men  happen  to  be 
beating  their  drums  at  the  same  time  in  different  quarters. 
One  is  tapping  two's;  the  other  one,  three's.  A  third 
man  hears  the  rhythmic  tune  of  the  combination,  and 
proceeds  to  tap  it  later  on  his  drum.  It  interests  him; 
so  he  plays  with  it  in  different  ways.  Knowing  that  the 
original  sounds  came  from  a  combination  of  two  drums,  he 
taps  with  his  stick  to  represent  one  drum,  and  with  his 
foot  to  represent  the  other.  Once  done,  the  task  is  easy,  and, 
of  course,  it  might  have  been  suggested  in  a  dozen  ways. 

The  factor  of  "substitution"  is  so  often  mentioned,  and 
is  treated  so  fully  in  certain  phases,  that  it  seems  surprising 

•  Fillmore,  J.  C.,  Primitive  rhythms,  Congr.  Rep.  Anthrop.,  1893, 
p.  172. 

7  Appendix  III,  section  xxiv. 


8  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

that  it  should  ever  be  slighted.  What  seems  to  be  for- 
gotten chiefly  is  its  function  as  an  essential  element  in 
"occult  balance"  or  " substitutional  symmetry,"  as  it  is 
called  by  Puffer.8  A  small  spot  of  red  in  one  corner  of  a 
Japanese  print  balanced  against  a  much  larger  patch  of 
gray  somewhere  opposite,  a  goose  flying  north  weighed 
against  a  daisy  bending  to  the  south,  a  low,  prolonged 
murmur  heard  and  weighed  against  a  short,  shrill  cry  — 
these  are  effects  of  substitution  or  compensation. 

The  principle  is  mentioned  by  Wundt.9  He  seems  to  be 
singularly  averse,  however,  to  applying  it  in  a  thorough- 
going way  to  arrangements  of  time-intervals.  It  is  quite 
generally  accepted  that  pitch,  stress,  and  duration  are 
constantly  being  substituted  for  each  other  as  elements  of 
"accent"  (used  in  the  sense  of  emphasis);  but  the  con- 
templation of  a  series  of  time-intervals,  varying  in  size,  as 
forming  occult  balances  just  as  if  they  were  spots  and 
spaces,  seems  foreign  to  both  Wundt  and  Meumann.  At 
any  rate,  they  both  leave  disconcerting  gaps  in  their 
discussion  of  rhythm,  because  of  their  failure  to  apply  a 
principle  to  which  they  are  already  committed. 

The  point  at  which  Wundt  and  Meumann  stop  so  short 
can  be  made  clear,  perhaps,  by  the  following  rough  Experi- 
ment. Tap  with  one  finger  upon  a  table  at  any  convenient 
rate.  Do  not  vary  the  intensity  of  the  taps  in  such  a 
way  as  to  form  groups  of  two's  or  three's;  simply  beat  a 
series  of  "unitary  pulses":  "1-1-1-1-1,  etc."  Now  begin 
to  substitute  for  a  single  tap  all  sorts  of  haphazard  varia- 
tions, in  each  case  subdividing  the  unit  time-interval  into 
as  many  equal  short  time-intervals  as  caprice  may  direct. 

8  Puffer,  E.,  Studies  in  symmetry,  Harv.  Psy.  St.,  I,  1903,  p.  529: 
"A  picture  composed  in  substitutional  symmetry  is  more  rich  in  its 
suggestions  of  motor  impulse,  and  thus  more  beautiful,  than  an  ex- 
ample of  geometrical  symmetry." 

»  Wundt,  op.  tit.,  Ill,  p.  156. 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  9 

In  this  way  the  "1's"  will  still  be  tapped,  but  between 
them  will  occur  one,  two,  three,  etc.,  extra  taps.  The  sum 
of  the  short  intervals  will,  of  course,  in  each  case  equal  the 
regular  standard  unit.  Between  every  two  successive 
sums  (equivalent  to  two  consecutive  standard  intervals)  a 
judgment  can  be  made  as  to  the  fact  that  although  one 
contains  three  taps  and  the  other  four,  for  instance,  the 
two  are  really  equivalent.  Brevity  of  interval  compensates 
for  excess  in  number.  Nothing  could  be  simpler.  When 
the  appointed  time  has  passed,  the  main  pulse  returns, 
and  the  sense  of  rhythm,  as  the  results  of  the  experiments 
on  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott 10  clearly  demonstrate,  follows 
the  march  of  the  recurrent  pulses. 

This  is  different  from  the  example  given  in  a  preceding 
paragraph,  where  a  "low,  prolonged  murmur"  is  balanced 
against  a  "short,  shrill  cry."  Pitch  and  stress  elements  in 
the  latter  compensate  for  its  brevity.  This  form  of  sub- 
stitution is  coming  to  be  generally  understood.  It  is  the 
recurrent,  spontaneously  varied  form  described  in  the 
preceding  paragraph,  that  has  been  neglected.  Yet  once 
apply  it  to  the  problem  of  prose,  and  its  import  is  far- 
reaching.  In  fact,  it  may  be  felt  to  include  syncopation, 
which,  together  with  the  principle  of  elastic  unitary  pulses, 
explains  completely  the  subjective  organization  of  hap- 
hazard series. 

Sievers  n  speaks  of  prose  as  breaking  up  into  "Sprech- 
takte"  or  "speech-bars,"  with  a  tendency  to  equal  dura- 
tion. One  can  even  "beat  time  to  artistic  delivery." 
Elsewhere,12  too,  he  speaks  of  arbitrary  changes  of  tempo, 
depending  on  sense  and  mood.  Of  the  manifold  possi- 
bilities of  syncopation,  however,  he  has  taken  virtually  no 
account;  nor  has  he  made  any  statement  that  goes  beyond 

10  Appendix  III,  section  xxxi. 

11  Sievers,  E.,  Grundzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5th  ed.  Leipzig,  1901,  p.  266. 
u  Ibid.,  p.  255. 


10  THE   RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

Wundt  and  Meumann  in  connection  with  applying  the 
principle  of  spontaneous  substitution  to  a  series  of  unitary 
pulses,  where  rhythm  is  maintained  by  a  succession  of 
shorter  time-intervals  than  those  that  lie  between  the  chief 
accents  of  a  sentence.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
this  shorter  pulsing  temporal  unit  can  never  be  felt  con- 
sistently in  prose  unless  we  are  keenly  alive  to  the  subtleties 
•of  syncopation.  This  means  that  time-beats  will  have  to 
fall  predominatingly  upon  unaccented  syllables  or  within 
the  pauses  between  words;  otherwise,  either  the  prose  will 
be  unduly  "regulated"  by  an  attempt  to  beat  time,  or  else 
the  sense  of  a  recurrent  unit  will  be  destroyed. 

At  this  point  individual  difference  proves  to  be  of  the 
greatest  significance.  With  those  who  possess  or  can 
acquire  the  ability  to  correlate  speech  intervals  with  an 
elastic  under-unit,  syncopating  freely,  and  capable  of 
breaking  up  spontaneously  into  "substitutional"  clusters, 
the  process  either  appears  from  the  start  as  automatic  or 
soon  becomes  so.  Moreover,  it  is  as  easy  and  natural  for 
a  syncopating  " timer"  like  Observer  No.  7,  as  it  is  difficult, 
if  not  impossible,  for  No.  10,  whose  rhythmic  limitations 
have  been  ascertained  in  the  tests.  In  the  first  place,  she 
is  deficient  in  auditory  types  of  imagery,13  she  has  difficulty 
in  learning  anything  by  ear,  and  fails  to  remember  accu- 
rately fairly  simple  groups  of  vowel  sounds.14  More 
significant  still,  her  rank  is  quite  low  for  all  the  tests  in 
syncopation,  simple  and  complex,15  and  she  finds  little 
interest  in  the  process.  Observer  No.  7,  on  the  other 
hand,  enjoys  it  thoroughly  and  scores  high  in  his  per- 
formance of  the  tasks. 

Granted  that  one  has  facility  and  interest  in  syncopation, 
the  application  to  prose  of  an  elastic  (accelerating  and 
retarding)  time-unit  is  a  simple  matter,  and  can  be  made 

"  Appendix  III,  section  iv.  "  Appendix  III,  section  xiii. 

15  Appendix  III,  sections  xxii,  xxiv. 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  11 

clear  by  the  following  rough  experiment:  Read  any  prose 
sentence  aloud  several  times,  until  what  appears  to  be  a 
natural,  easy  swing  for  it  is  established.  Then  begin 
walking  up  and  down  at  a  comfortable  rate,  capable  of 
being  accelerated  or  retarded  moderately,  that  is,  without 
reaching  the  extreme  of  being  actually  doubled  or  halved. 
Now  begin  to  read  the  sentence  aloud  again,  while 
walking,  taking  care,  at  first,  to  keep  the  two  operations, 
reading  and  walking,  as  separate  as  possible.  If  anything, 
exaggerate  irregularities  in  the  reading.  Then  gradually 
allow  the  sets  of  movements  to  merge  into  a  combined 
impression;  in  other  words,  catch  the  "rhythmic  tune"  of 
the  footsteps  beating  against  the  articulatory  impulses  — 
with  a  definite  interest  in  every  bit  of  syncopation  detected 
—  that  is,  in  every  spot  where  a  footstep  falls  between  two 
syllables  instead  of  coinciding  with  either  one  of  them. 

Having  marked  the  most  striking  cases  of  syncopation, 
begin  to  allow  the  reading  of  the  sentence  to  affect  the 
rate  of  walking,  rather  than  the  reverse;  i.e.,  accelerate 
or  retard  to  a  moderate  degree  the  walking-step  wherever 
the  sense  or  the  sound  of  the  sentence  may  suggest.  Con- 
tinue reading  and  walking,  but  begin  to  concentrate  more 
and  more  upon  the  rhythmic  tune,  with  its  syncopating 
possibilities,  which  will  seldom  fail  to  emerge  into  just  such 
forms  as  are  indicated  by  the  schedules  employed  in  the 
phonograph  experiments.16 

In  the  actual  laboratory  tests  the  above  correlation  of 
reading  and  walking-step  was  often  obtained  in  a  much 
shorter  time  than  it  has  taken  to  describe  the  process.  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  walking-step  (as 
actually  performed  —  not  imaged)  is  about  the  most 
inelastic  unit  one  could  select,  and  is,  consequently,  very 
likely  to  exert  too  much  of  a  regulating  influence  on  the 
reading.  The  experiment  is  valuable  because  of  its  ease, 
16  Appendices  II  and  III,  section  xxix. 


12  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

and  is  simplified  by  the  fact  that  the  walking-step  is  more 
likely  to  be  automatic  in  its  operation,  and  thus  not  so 
apt  to  cause  confusion  in  one's  first  attempt  to  secure  a 
correlation. 

After  succeeding  with  the  walking-step,  one  should  take 
a  new  sentence  and  follow  a  different  procedure:  Read 
the  sentence  aloud  until  a  natural  swing  is  achieved  which 
can  be  recognized  and  approximately  repeated;  then  begin 
to  tap  with  one  finger  an  elastic  (accelerating  and  retarding) 
serial  accompaniment,  with  as  much  syncopation  as  possible. 
Continue  this,  with  the  whole  attention  concentrated  on 
catching  the  rhythmic  tune  obtained  by  the  combined 
movements  of  finger  and  voice.  As  soon  as  the  rhythmic 
tune  is  caught  sufficiently  to  be  approximately  repeated, 
let  the  attention  rest  more  upon  the  elastic  temporal  unit, 
tapped  by  the  finger,  in  order  to  notice  its  acceleration  or 
retarding.  Then,  finally,  direct  attention  upon  the  sense 
and  swing  of  the  sentence,  and  let  the  beating  of  time 
become  more  and  more  automatic. 

Any  objections  that  might  be  urged  against  the  possi- 
bility of  such  an  experience  are  refuted  by  the  data  ob- 
tained from  the  present  experiments  17  where  most  of  the 
observers  found  it  easy  to  beat  time  to  the  phonographic 
record  of  prose-beats  made  by  Observer  No.  1.  The  latter 
was  in  no  way  influenced  by  objective  time-beating,  but, 
quite  spontaneously,  with  an  automatic  facility  acquired 
by  years  of  musical  training,  tapped  upon  the  drum  a 
series  of  beats,  which  on  first  hearing  were  judged  by  most 
of  the  observers  to  be  thoroughly  irregular. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the  liberties  allowed  by 
the  introduction  of  an  elastic  unit,  and  the  endless  possi- 
bilities of  syncopation  and  substitution,  render  quite  easy 
to  a  musical  observer  the  task  of  fitting  a  series  of  unitary 
pulses  to  any  series  of  irregular  sounds  (provided  the 
17  Appendix  III,  sections  xxvii  and  xxix. 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  13 

sounds  do  not  come  too  close  together  to  be  discriminated 
or  so  far  apart  that  they  cannot  easily  be  grasped  as  the 
boundaries  of  a  continuous  interval).  Whatever  is  not 
explained  by  syncopation  and  substitution,  is  easily  ex- 
plained by  acceleration  and  retarding.  We  must  add  to 
all  this  the  processes  of  so-called  "subjective  grouping," 
both  voluntary  and  involuntary,  by  means  of  which  our 
perception  of  objective  conditions,  up  to  a  certain  degree, 
comes  under  the  distorting  influence  of  "impressions." 
Such  illusions  are  fed  by  our  enjoyment  of  the  variegated 
effects  of  subjective  organization.  What  needs  to  be 
remembered,  then,  is  that  for  the  individual,  and  conse- 
quently for  psychology,  these  illusions  are  in  themselves 
important  "facts"  of  conscious  life. 

It  is  thus  that  we  become  aware  of  the  phenomena 
heralded  by  Wundt's  general  statement  about  the  possible 
rhythmic  conception  of  all  series  of  sounds,  and  exemplified 
in  the  data  listed  in  Appendix  III.  There  are  individuals 
for  whom  a  series  of  apparently  irregular  sounds  can  be 
easily  organized  subjectively  into  a  satisfying  rhythmic 
tune.  There  are  also  individuals  for  whom  the  task  is 
difficult,  if  not  impossible.  Prose  thus  becomes  for  some 
observers  a  sort  of  music,  built  upon  elastic  unitary  pulses, 
sometimes  grouped  and  always  syncopating  freely;  but  for 
others,  it  remains,  and  must  always  remain,  an  utter 
mystery,  regarded  either  with  indifference  or  as  tantalizing 
because  of  its  constant  suggestion  of  a  rhythm  never  fully 
achieved  except  in  spots  —  a  so-called  "free"  amorphous 
entity,  identified  merely  by  the  chilling  assurance  that,  at 
any  rate,  it  is  not  verse. 

A  new  standard  is  thus  established  for  passing  judgment 
upon  the  rhythm  of  a  sentence  or  paragraph.  The  marking 
of  grammatical  (dictionary)  accent  is  by  itself  misleading, 
except  for  the  purpose  of  detecting  passages  of  metrical 
patchwork  such  as  occur  in  the  writings  of  Ingersoll,  or 


14  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

unusually  long  stretches  of  "iambics"  such  as  have  been 
fished  out  of  Dickens  and  Ruskin.  The  reason  such 
"scanning"  is  misleading,  is  simply  that  a  slow  reading  of 
some  of  our  most  unimpeachable  prose  turns  it  into  just 
such  iambic  or  trochaic  drivel,  while  a  rapid  reading  of 
some  of  the  ridiculed  passages  introduces  a  varied  swing 
that  competes  (in  ease,  spontaneity  and  appropriateness) 
with  the  very  best.  The  stress-patterns  of  routine  scanning 
have  thus  little  more  than  suggestive  value,  when  con- 
sidered apart  from  the  molding  influence  of  tone-color  and 
dominating  mood  or  thought.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
stress-patterns  of  actual  experience  have  great  significance, 
and  when  combined  with  the  corresponding  time,  pitch, 
quality  and  thought  patterns,  complete  what  we  mean  by 
the  rhythm  of  language. 

The  new  standard  has  for  its  support  not  so  much  its 
apparent  novelty,  as  its  subservience  to  the  psychological 
facts  of  individual  difference.  Observer  No.  7  hears  a 
series  of  irregular  prose  beats.  At  first,  he  pronounces 
them  elusive;  later  they  swing  into  full  musical  rank. 
The  rhythmic  tune  is  even  capable  of  approximate  notation. 
Observer  No.  10  hears  the  series  to  the  last  as  an  elusive 
aggregation  of  approximately  unrelated  sounds.  Between 
these  two  extremes  are  ranged  perceptions  of  every  degree 
of  clarity. 

To  test  prose-rhythm,  therefore,  we  do  not  merely  mark 
the  accents  with  the  ancient  classic  symbols,  and  admire, 
with  an  optical  delight,  the  "pseonic"  or  "dochmiac" 
pattern  presented.  If  rhythm  means  anything  to  the 
average  individual,  it  means  motor  response  and  a  sense  of 
organized  time.  This  is  what  it  means  in  the  playing  of 
flutes,  the  beating  of  drums,  the  singing  of  songs,  and  in 
dancing.  If  it  means  something  else  in  prose  a  new  word 
should  be  coined.  But  it  is  idle  to  claim  that  it  means 
anything  but  the  same  old  spell  the  human  race  has  always 


THE  NEW  STANDARD  15 

found  in  regulated  motion  —  the  exciting  and  soothing 
effect  of  beating  time,  of  nodding  the  head,  of  swaying  the 
body,  of  tapping  the  feet  and  hands,  or,  finally,  of  sub- 
stituting less  obtrusive  tensions  and  relaxations,  by  means 
of  which  the  time  is  marked.  Whenever  pure  images  take 
the  place  of  motor  response,  we  feel  that  the  rhythm  is 
weakened;  so  when  our  whole  body  becomes  possessed 
with  the  rhythmic  pulse,  the  impression  swells  accordingly 
to  its  climax. 

What  is  left,  then,  but  to  conclude  that  the  sentence 
which  has  in  its  structure  the  possibility  of  a  maximum  of 
rhythm  must  be  capable  of  evoking  in  us  a  maximum  of 
motor  response?  To  test  it,  therefore,  we  must  tap  to  it, 
nod  to  it,  walk  to  it,  sway  to  it,  chop  wood  to  it,  if  neces- 
sary. To  do  this  we  must  catch  its  drum-beat  tune  —  or 
rather  we  must  catch  the  most  impelling  of  the  infinite 
variety  of  rhythmic  tunes  which  are  possible  for  every 
sentence,  good  or  bad.  If  it  is  easy  for  us  to  nod  or  tap 
or,  for  that  matter,  hoe  potatoes  to  these  salient  "drum- 
songs" —  in  which  syncopation  and  substitution  have  free 
range  —  the  first  degree  of  rhythmic  excellence  is  obtained. 
A  maximum  of  ease  with  a  maximum  of  complication  adds 
to  this  a  higher  degree  of  technical  merit.  If,  finally,  the 
associations  and  suggestions  connected  with  the  motor 
response  are  appropriate  to  the  mood  and  thought  of  the 
sentence,  there  is  nothing  left  to  be  desired. 

From  this  pinnacle,  nevertheless,  we  must  fall  to  the 
realization  that  such  enthusiasm  means  nothing  and  will 
ever  mean  nothing  to  the  self-conscious  individual  who 
finds  himself  a  prey  to  the  inhibitions  of  modern  society, 
the  sedate  victim  of  dignity,  who  dares  not  climb  a  tree 
or  handle  an  axe,  whose  natural  rhythmic  response  is 
attenuated,  and  whose  images  of  time  are  consequently 
blurred,  whose  coordinating  processes  are  so  obstructed 
that  it  is  impossible  for  syncopation  to  be  instinctively 


16  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

enjoyed,  or  even  understood.  In  spite  of  all  these  "de- 
ficiencies" or  "differences,"  such  persons  may  occupy  the 
highest  ranks  of  purely  intellectual  eminence.  To  such 
passively  rhythmic  individuals,  prose  will  continue  to  be 
prose  as  usually  described  —  the  mere  negation  of  verse. 
To  the  aggressively  rhythmic,  it  is  like  everything  else  in 
life  —  at  its  root  lies  a  subjective  "scheme,"  just  as 
binding  in  its  way  as  that  of  verse,  only  less  obvious.  It 
is  the  rhythm  of  conscious  existence,  announced  so  clearly, 
whether  intended  or  not,  by  William  James  in  his  descrip- 
tion of  our  sense  of  time  as  "Now!  Now!  Now!" 


CHAPTER  II 

HISTORICAL  SURVEY 

EXPERIMENTAL  work  upon  the  rhythm  of  speech  virtually 
begins  with  Brticke.1  His  conclusion,  however,  that  the 
feet  in  verse  are  temporally  equal,  has  to  be  disregarded, 
not  only  because  of  the  crudity  of  his  apparatus  but  because 
his  subjects  were  instructed  to  scan  in  a  mechanical  fashion. 
In  1893  Bolton 2  produced  the  first  and  what  is  so  far  the 
last  attempt  to  cover  the  field  of  rhythm  as  a  whole.  In 
1894  came  Meumann's  signal  contribution.  For  Meumann 
rhythm  is  a  mental  process  by  means  of  which  we  group 
sensations  of  sound  into  a  system  of  images  arranged  upon 
a  temporal  basis.3  But  besides  this  type  of  rhythm  he 
describes  a  rhythm  of  the  thoughts  themselves  capable  of 
disturbing  strictly  temporal  relations.  Phrases  may  in  this 
way  be  considered  as  units  and  similar  groups  recur  with 
satisfactory  effect  at  unequal  intervals  of  time.4 

Two  tendencies  thus  appear  in  verse  —  one  toward 
order,  one  toward  freedom.  In  fact,  a  certain  lawlessness 
is  natural  to  poetic  rhythm.  Absolute  regularity  is  un- 
bearable. Meumann  expresses  his  surprise  at  Hermann 
Paul's  naive  acceptance  of  Briicke's  theory  of  equal  bars. 
He  concedes  the  validity  of  Bolton's  statement  that  there 

1  Brticke,  E.  W.,  Die  physiologischen  Grundlagen  d.  neuhochd.  Vers- 
kunst,  Wien,  1871. 

2  Bolton,  T.  L.,  Rhythm,  Amer.  J.  of  Psy.,  VI,  1894,  p.  145  ff. 

*  Meumann,  E.,  Untersuchungen  z.  Psych,  u.  Aesth.  d.  Rhythmus, 
Philos.  Stud.,  X,  1894,  p.  272  ff. 
4  Ibid.,  p.  305. 

17 


18  THE  RHYTHM   OF  PROSE 

is  a  tendency  to  slow  up  or  to  hasten  the  number  of 
elements  in  a  group  in  order  to  make  the  group  fit  the 
natural  attention  period,5  and  that  this  develops  in  verse 
as  a  tendency  to  preserve  regular  intervals  from  one  chief 
accent  to  another;  but  he  maintains  that  there  is  present 
also  a  disorganizing  influence  that  can  be  traced  back  to 
three  sources:  melody  interest,  tempo  changes  due  to 
feeling,  and  finally  logical  groupings,  cutting  across  the 
temporal  divisions.  Meumann  should  have  emphasized 
the  fact  that  a  similar  tendency  toward  freedom,  whatever 
may  be  regarded  as  its  source,  is  present  in  regular  music. 
The  neglect  of  this  incontestable  truth  accounts  in  part 
for  the  inability  of  all  attempts  up  to  the  present  to  make 
quite  clear  what  there  is  in  common  between  music  and 
verse  —  to  say  nothing  of  music  and  prose.  Experi- 
mentally this  has  received  very  little  attention. 

Meumann  contends  that  the  intellectual  processes  are 
always  present  in  rhythm  and  that  the  organic  phenom- 
ena are  only  accompaniments.6  Breath  adapts  itself  to 
rhythm.7  There  is  most  organization  when  least  feeling. 
Titchener,  however,  has  brought  to  notice  what  seems  to 
be  a  contradiction  in  Meumann's  attitude  toward  rhythm, 
inasmuch  as  M.  K.  Smith  8  leads  us  to  infer  that  later, 
at  least,  Meumann  regarded  rhythm  as  an  "emotion  dis- 
charging itself  in  ordered  movement,"  rather  than  as  a 
perception. 

To  the  present  writer  the  most  signal  gaps  in  Meumann's 
investigation  appear  to  result  from  his  failure  to  appreciate 
the  full  meaning  and  possibilities  of  acceleration  and 
retarding  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  syncopation  on  the 
other,  as  means  of  bringing  what  are  apparently  temporal 

*  Meumann,  E.,  Untersuchungen  z.  Psych,  u.  Aesth.  d.  Rhythmus, 
Philos.  Stud.,  X,  1894,  p.  405  8. 

«  Op.  tit.,  p.  272.  7  Ibid.,  p.  270.  - 

8  Smith,  M.  K.,  Rhythmus  u.  Arbeit,  Philos.  Stud.,  XVI,  1900. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  19 

irregularities  into  a  musically  accepted  scheme  that  shall 
be  both  simple  and  clear.  Throughout  his  work,  more- 
over, the  tremendous  opportunities  for  adducing  the 
principle  of  substitutional  equivalence  or  occult  balance  as 
an  explanatory  factor  in  the  perception  of  elusive  rhythm, 
have  been  almost  entirely  disregarded. 

In  1895  Binet  and  Courtier 9  made  researches  on  the 
irregularity  of  supposedly  equal  musical  intervals  when 
played  even  by  expert  performers.  In  successions  of  five 
notes  it  was  found  that  the  faster  the  notes  were  played 
the  more  irregular  were  the  intervals.10  In  1897  Courtier  u 
concluded  that  the  memory  for  tones  and  the  memory  for 
rhythm  do  not  always  go  together.  About  the  same  time 
Meyer  12  maintained  that  the  rhythm  of  song  and  poetry  is 
directly  perceived  only  as  motor  rhythm  and  only  by  the 
person  who  sings  or  recites.  In  other  words,  it  is  only 
indirectly  perceived  by  the  auditor  through  the  movements 
it  provokes. 

From  this  time  on  the  accounts  of  various  researches 
begin  to  multiply  at  an  increasing  rate  until  a  sort  of  lull 
is  reached  after  1913.  Hurst  and  McKay  13  investigate  the 
time  relations  in  verse.  Lanier's  theory  of  regular  musical 
relations  based  upon  a  normal  bar  is  felt  to  be  untenable.14 
Guest  is  criticized  for  ignoring  the  time  element,  and 
comment  is  made  upon  Gummere's  admitting  tune  merely 
as  a  regulative  element.  Hurst  and  McKay  contend  that 

9  Binet    and    Courtier,    Recherches     graphiques    sur    la    musique, 
L'Annee  Psychol,  II,  1895,  p.  201. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  215. 

11  Courtier,  J.,  Communication  sur  la  memoire  musicale,  III  Inter. 
Kongr.  f.  Psy.,  Miinchen,  1897,  p.  240. 

12  Meyer,  E.  A.,  Beitrdge  z.  deutsch.  Metrik,  Die  neu.  Spr.,  VI, 
1896,  p.  122. 

1J  Hurst,  A.  S.,  and  McKay,  J.,  Experiments  on  the  time  relations  of 
poetical  meters,  Univ.  of  Toronto  St.,  Psy.  Ser.,  Ill,  1899. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  158. 


20  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

both  time  and  accent  may  occasionally  be  ignored,  allowing 
the  thought  alone  to  regulate  the  rhythm.16  As  a  result 
of  their  research  an  approximately  uniform  length  of  foot 
is  established,  but  the  iamb  is  found  to  be  longer  on  an 
average  than  the  trochee.16 

Shaw  and  Wrinch  17  maintain  that  each  person  has  for 
his  unit  of  time  a  certain  interval  which  may  vary,  how- 
ever, on  different  occasions.  This  unit  of  time  is  a  psychic 
compound  and  is  the  basis  for  estimating  intervals. 
Schumann's  theory  is  criticized.  Feelings  of  expectation 
and  surprise  do  not  mediate  the  estimation  of  the  intervals, 
as  Schumann  would  have  us  believe.18  This  unit  of  time 
is  close  to  half  a  second,19  and  corresponds  to  what  Verrier 
later  applies  to  speech  rhythm  as  a  "vocal  step." 

In  1901  appeared  the  fifth  edition  of  Sievers's  Phonetik. 
In  Vorwort  XI  he  appears  inclined  to  oppose  experimental 
phonetics,  commenting  upon  the  inevitable  self-conscious- 
ness involved  in  using  mouth-pieces,  etc.  The  instrument 
for  photographing  sound,  constructed  by  Dr.  Pegram  and 
the  author,  seems  to  obviate  entirely  this  disadvantage. 
Like  Meumann,  Sievers20  speaks  of  two  antagonistic 
rhythmic  tendencies,  one  toward  freedom  and  variety,  the 
other  toward  equal  "Sprechtakte."  It  is  significant  that 
he  mentions  the  possibility  of  beating  time  to  artistic 
declamation.21  He  finds  a  tendency  for  prose  to  be  divided 
into  sections  of  approximately  equal  duration,  which  can  ap- 
pear even  when  the  separate  "Sprechtakte"  seem  of  unequal 

15  Hurst.  A.  S.,  and  McKay,  J.,  Experiments  on  the  time  relations  of 
poetical  meters,  Univ.  of  Toronto  St.,  Psy.  Ser.,  Ill,  1899,  p.  162. 
18  Ibid.,  p.  166. 

17  Shaw,  M.  A.,  and  Wrinch,  S.  F.,  A  contribution  to  the  psychology 
of  time,  Unit,  of  Tor.  St.,  Psy.  Ser.,  II,  1899,  p.  121. 

18  Ibid.,  p.  124.  »  Ibid.,  p.  129. 

10  Sievera,  E.,  Grundzuge  der  Phonetik,  Leipzig,  5th  ed.,  1901,  p. 
266. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  266. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  21 

duration.  The  later  work  of  Sievers22  is  colored  by  his 
interest  in  speech  melody,  but  for  his  generalizations  in 
this  direction  he  seems  as  yet  to  have  adduced  no  definite 
and  convincing  data. 

Sievers  is  known  to  have  a  delicate  ear  for  musical 
effects,  so  that  it  is  extremely  puzzling  that  although  he  so 
often  discusses  the  time-relations  in  rhythm,  he  should  give 
them  such  scant  treatment  in  these  studies  of  speech 
melody.23  "The  individuality  of  a  melody  is  absolutely 
dependent,"  says  Puffer,24  "on  its  rhythm,  that  is,  on  the 
relative  time-value  of  its  tones."  Gurney  makes  similar 
statements.  The  case  is  plain  if  we  take  the  stirring  tune 
of  "Dixie,"  for  instance.  Play  it  or  sing  it  with  an  equal 
time-interval  for  each  change  in  pitch,  and  it  becomes  a 
melancholy  tune,  indeed.  No  doubt  the  objective  irregu- 
larity in  the  temporal-intervals  of  speech  is  chiefly  to  blame 
for  their  being  shelved  in  the  discussion.  The  missing  key, 
of  course,  has  to  be  supplied  by  a  lucid  explanation  of  the 
processes  by  means  of  which  a  highly  rhythmic  observer, 
such  as  No.  7  hi  the  present  series  of  experiments,  is  able 
to  evoke  subjective  order  out  of  objective  chaos. 

In  the  "Metrische  Studien,"  Sievers,  adopting  Saran's 
definitions,  refers  to  "time-organization  and  stress-grada- 
tion" as  "by  far  the  most  important"  among  the  factors  in 
rhythm.25  Elsewhere,26  he  indicates  that  the  "feet"  in 
alliterative  verse  approximate  "equal  duration."  No 
"timer"  in  the  past  could  have  quarreled  with  this  attitude. 

22  Zur  dlteren  Judith,  Prag,  1908;  Rhythmisch-melodische  Studien, 
Heidelberg,  1912. 

13  Sievers,  E.,  Rhythmisch-melodische  Studien,  Heidelberg,  1912,  p. 
10  ff.,  p.  41  ff. 

24  Puffer,  E.,  The  psychology  of  beauty,  p.  185. 

K  Sievers,  Metrische  Studien,  Kon.  sdch.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  Abh.  phil.- 
hist.  KL,  XXI,  p.  31. 

*  Sievers,  Zur  Rhyth.  d.  germ.  Alliterationsverses,  BeitrOge  z.  Gesch. 
d.  deut.  Sprache,  X,  1885,  p.  221. 


22  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

Our  wonder  is  consequently  all  the  greater  when  we  find 
that  Sievers's  two-beat  theory  for  Old  English  verse,  in  its 
application,  at  any  rate,  falls  back  upon  the  assumption 
that  time  is  not  so  important  a  factor  as  we  imagined. 
This  is  discussed  later  in  the  chapter  in  connection  with 
Schipper,  who  adopts  the  two-beat  theory,  after  committing 
himself,  more  inextricably  than  Sievers,  to  a  strict  time 
basis  for  poetical  rhythm. 

Wallin27  has  shown  to  what  an  extent  the  mere  visual 
arrangement  of  language  in  schematic  lines  instead  of  a 
straightforward  succession  of  words  is  often  the  only 
effective  aid  in  distinguishing  verse  from  prose.  Deprived 
of  this  aid,  three  subjects  declared  verses  of  Tennyson  and 
Browning  to  be  prose.  Only  one  out  of  a  group  pronounced 
Browning  poetry.28  Wallin  advises  using  the  interval 
between  centroids  as  a  unit  of  measure,  and  thus  dispenses 
with  bar  and  foot  as  terms.29  Prose  observes  no  systematic 
arrangement  of  the  intervals.30  Westphal,  Lotze,  and 
Lamer  emphasize  tune  as  the  basis  of  rhythm;  Guest, 
Gummere,  and  others  maintain  the  importance  of  stress. 
The  centroid  theory  is  concerned  with  both  time  and 
stress.  Time  and  rhythm,  however,  are  not  on  the  same 
basis;  rhythm  is  less  a  matter  of  judgment  than  of  feeling 
or  "a  rhythmic  sense."  The  experiments  show  that 
trochaic  rhythm  appears  more  pleasing  than  iambic. 
Lovers  of  melody  and  harmony  prefer  slower  tempos  than 
those  which  appear  most  pleasing  to  observers  whose 
endowment  is  chiefly  rhythmical.31  The  larger  fluctuations 
of  attention  alone  may  possess  power  to  attune  and  cadence 
the  soul.32  Such  a  hypothesis  would  make  it  possible  for 
prose  to  be  considered  as  a  rhythmical  succession  of  fairly 
long  segments  marked  off  by  the  crests  of  attention. 

17  Wallin,  J.  E.  W.,  Researches  on  the  rhythm  of  speech,  Yale  Pa. 
St.,  IX,  1901.  K  Ibid.,  p.  64.  "  Ibid.,  p.  113. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  114.  «  Ibid.,  p.  216.  «  Ibid.,  p.  142. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  23 

MacDougall33  reviews  the  various  estimates  that  have 
been  computed  for  the  "indifference  point"  or  easiest 
interval  of  time  in  which  a  sensible  object  can  be  clearly 
grasped.  According  to  different  authorities  it  varies  from 
about  .375  sec.  to  .775  sec.  The  artistic  effect  of  rhythm34 
is  not  due  to  any  objective  physical  relations  of  time  and 
so  forth,  but  is  simply  due  to  arousing  in  an  observer  a 
feeling  of  pleasure,  equivalence,  perfection.  The  conditions 
of  a  rhythmic  impression  are  recurrence,  accentuation,  and 
rate;  but  rhythmic  forms  are  not  rhythm  until  they  initiate 
movement.36  In  any  case  there  is  "properly  no  repetition 
of  identical  sequences";  variation  is  always  present.36  "If 
the  temporal  conditions  be  not  fulfilled  (and  the  subject 
cannot  create  them)  no  impression  of  rhythm  is  possible." 
Accent,  however,  may  be  easily  contributed  by  the  ob- 
server.37 By  "rate"  is  meant  the  rate  at  which  rhythm 
can  be  readily  perceived  —  not  too  fast,  not  too  slow. 
Stress  alone  cannot  make  rhythm;  the  sense  or  impression 
of  temporal  equivalence  is  the  sine  qua  non.38 

Irregular  movements,  according  to  Miyaki,  have  a 
"constant  tendency  to  become  rhythmical,  notwithstanding 
the  voluntary  effort  of  the  subject  to  execute  the  move- 
ments at  irregular  intervals." 39  In  this  connection  it 
should  be  remembered  that  Meumann 40  has  already  made 
clear  the  fact  that  all  regular  or  rhythmical  movements 
tend  to  become  automatic  and  that  this  automatism  is  of 
great  service  to  a  performer  in  the  matter  of  keeping  time. 

w  MacDougall,  R.,  Rhythm,  time,  and  number,  Am.  J.  of  Psy., 
XIII,  1902,  p.  93  ff. 

84  MacDougall,  The  structure  of  simple  rhythm  forms,  Ha.ro.  Ps. 
St.,  I,  1903,  p.  310. 

34  Ibid.,  p.  319.  M  Ibid.,  p.  319. 

»7  Ibid.,  p.  321.  »  Ibid.,  p.  352. 

19  Miyaki,  I.,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action,  Yale  Psy.  St.,  X,  1902, 
p.  4. 

40  Meumann,  op.  cit.,  p.  316. 


24  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

In  Miner's  researches 41  rhythm  is  found  to  be  most 
pleasant  when  a  motor  response  is  reinforced  by  sensations 
accompanying  the  regular  rhythms  of  the  body.  Once 
instituted  it  is  fostered  because  it  serves  the  purpose  of 
economy.  Rhythm  is  defined  neither  as  a  pure  perception 
nor  as  a  pure  emotion,  but  as  "the  uniform  perception  of 
successive  groups  of  objectively  localized  sensations,  accom- 
panied by  a  characteristic  emotional  tone."  Rhythm  is 
the  "uniform  recurrence  of  sensations  of  movement  or 
tension,  concurring  in  regular  periods  with  sensations  from 
an  objective  series  of  stimuli."  A  rhythm  of  smell,  taste, 
touch,  and  vision  is  just  as  possible  as  a  rhythm  of  hear- 
ing.42 Visual  rhythm  is  less  distinct  than  auditory  rhythm, 
but  just  as  direct.43  "Both  auditory  and  visual  rhythm 
seem  to  be  illusions  due  to  the  muscular  reaction  of  the 
subject,  combined  with  the  sensations  from  objective 
serial  stimuli."  u 

According  to  Stetson,45  rhythm  assumes  a  movement 
cycle  involving  the  activity  of  two  opposing  sets  of  muscles. 
"Every  rhythm  is  dynamic;  it  consists  of  actual  move- 
ment."46 "If  the  basis  of  rhythm  is  to  be  found  in 
muscular  sensations,  rather  than  in  the  supposed  activity 
of  some  special  'mental'  function,  the  nature  of  the 
movement  cycle  involved  is  of  the  greatest  interest." 47 
Upon  this  same  muscular  basis  Bingham48  founds  his 
motor  theory  for  melody.  "Rise  in  pitch  is  not  merely 

41  Miner,  J.  B.,  Motor,  visual,  and  applied   rhythms,  Mon.  Supp., 
Psy.  Rev.,  V,  1903,  p.  20. 

42  Miner,  op.  tit.,  p.  40.  «  Ibid.,  p.  71.  "  Ibid.,  p.  72. 

46  Stetson,  R.  H.,  Rhythm  and  rhyme,  Harv.  Psy.  St.,  I,  1903,  p. 
453. 

48  Stetson,  Motor  theory  of  rhyme  and  discrete  succession,  Psy. 
Rev.,  XII,  1905. 

47  Stetson,  Rhythm  and  rhyme,  p.  453. 

48  Bingham,  W.  V.  D.,  Studies  in  melody,  Mon.  Supp.,  Psy.  Rev., 
XII,  1910,  p.  86. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  25 

a  result  of  increased  tension  of  the  vocal  apparatus:  it 
likewise  produces  increased  muscular  tension  in  the  hearer. 
A  falling  inflection  at  the  close  consequently  serves  to 
hasten  the  relaxation  process  which  marks  the  completion 
of  the  melody."  Two  or  more  tones  are  felt  to  be  related 
when  there  is  "community  of  organized  response."  The 
effect  of  melody  is  a  "ground-swell  muscular  process." 

Scripture  defines  rhythmic  movements  as  "movements 
repeated  at  apparently  equal  intervals."  49  He  advocates 
the  measurement  of  verse  according  to  the  centroid  sys- 
tem.50 Speech  is  a  "flow  of  auditory  and  motor  energy," 
with  no  possibility  of  division  into  separate  blocks  such  as 
letters,  syllables,  words,  feet,  etc.,  except  in  a  purely 
arbitrary  manner  that  does  not  represent  the  actual  case.61 
A  word  has  as  many  syllables  as  it  is  "felt"  to  have 
centroids;  but  on  account  of  the  substitutional  value  of 
pitch  and  duration  in  determining  weight,  "the  centroid 
will  rarely  coincide  with  the  maximum  of  energy."  52  In 
other  words,  factors  besides  intensity  will  have  to  be 
considered  in  determining  its  position. 

Various  passages  of  spoken  prose,  recorded  phonograph- 
ically,  have  been  measured  at  different  times  by  Scripture; 
and  some  of  them,  such  as  the  speech  by  Depew,  he 
transcribes  into  musical  notation.83  No  attempt  is  made, 
however,  to  organize  the  transcription  into  regular  bars. 
The  chief  objection  to  be  raised  against  his  tables,  in  which 
amplitudes  of  vibration  in  the  phonographic  record  are 
recorded  in  minute  detail,  is  that  no  adequate  corrections 
are  made  for  the  errors  of  resonance  pertaining  to  the  pho- 

"  Scripture,  E.  WM  The  new  psychology,  London,  1898,  p.  180. 

60  Scripture,  Elements  of  experimental  phonetics,  N.  Y.,  1902,  p. 
554  ff. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  550.  "  Ibid.,  p.  451. 

M  Scripture,  Researches  in  experimental  phonetics,  Washington, 
1906,  p.  71. 


26  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

nograph  diaphragms  employed  in  recording  the  speeches. 
It  is  assumed  that  the  resistance  of  the  wax  is  just  enough 
to  overcome  by  damping  the  exaggeration  of  amplitudes  at 
certain  elevations  of  pitch.  But  even  after  diaphragms  are 
carefully  calibrated  and  approximate  corrections  made,  any 
attempt  to  locate  centroids  in  the  continuum  of  ordinary 
speech  is  likely  to  entail  results  of  the  most  untrustworthy 
nature.  The  best  that  objective  measurement  can  do  is  to 
obtain  maxima  of  pitch  elevation  and  maxima  of  recorded 
amplitude.  These  together  with  elements  of  duration  can 
be  separately  listed,  but  to  obtain  the  real  intensities  or  to 
combine  the  various  factors  making  up  a  centroid  into  a 
point  of  measurable  distinctness  seems  to  be  more  than  we 
can  ever  hope  to  achieve. 

It  was  found  by  Sanford  and  Triplett M  that  when  a 
number  of  children  were  asked  to  tap  nursery  rhymes  as 
they  recited  them  a  variety  of  interpretations  resulted. 
As  an  example,  hi  the  case  of  "Bye  Baby  Bunting,"  four 
of  the  children  gave  four  accents  to  the  line,  ten  gave 
three,  and  one  gave  two.  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this 
connection  that  in  Scripture's  measurement  of  "Who  killed 
Cock  Robin?"  two  centroids  are  assigned  to  the  line,  and 
this  proportionment  is  advocated  as  a  proper  index  for  the 
schematic  nature  of  the  verse  —  at  any  rate,  for  the  particu- 
lar version  of  it  under  consideration.66  This,  of  course, 
corresponds  to  the  familiar  theory  of  Coleridge,  as  carried 
into  practice  in  the  case  of  "Christabel."  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  Scripture  does  not  ignore  the 
temporal  element  as  fundamental  in  the  conception  of 
rhythm.  Moreover,  his  definition  of  rhythmic  movements, 
referred  to  above,  as  movements  repeated  at  apparently 
equal  intervals,  shows  that  it  is  our  impression  of  the 

M  Sanford,  E.  C.,  and  Triplett,  N.,  Studies  of  rhythm  and  meter, 
Am.  J.  of  Pay.,  VI,  1910,  p.  388. 

"  Scripture,  Elements  of  experimental  phonetics,  p.  554. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  27 

time  relations,  rather  than  their  objective  value,  that  is 
significant. 

The  rhythm  of  work  has  received  attention  chiefly  from 
Biicher66  and  Miss  Smith.67  The  former  contends  that 
half-animal  sounds  gave  primitive  man  a  feeling  of  relief.68 
These  sounds  were  strengthened,  and  thus  song  developed 
out  of  a  series  of  senseless  "Lautreihen."  Tone  rhythm 
supported  movement  rhythm,  and  breath  forced  both  to 
cooperate.  These  nonsense  songs  were  found  an  assistance 
in  primitive  labor  and  are  considered  by  Biicher  as  an 
origin  of  rhythm  prior  to  the  dance.69  Biicher's  theory60 
of  a  second  stage  in  the  development  of  rhythm,  in  which 
words  and  sentences  were  interpolated  between  the  "Laut- 
reihen" that  accompanied  work,  is  purely  fanciful. 

One  interesting  result  of  Miss  Smith's  research61  is  that 
the  observers  think  they  are  working  to  time-beats  when 
they  are  not.  The  exactness  with  which  their  movements 
and  the  beats  of  an  accompanying  metronome  coincide 
varies  according  to  the  individual  difference  of  the  subjects. 
In  any  case,  the  relation  between  the  two  operations  is  a 
very  free  one.62  The  statement  of  Miss  Smith's M  that 
"there  is  no  bad  rhythm"  or,  as  interpreted  by  Squire,64 
that  the  perception  of  rhythm  is  present  in  completeness 
or  vanishes  entirely,  is  a  point  of  departure  for  the  latter's 
genetic  study  of  the  subject.  Rhythmic  forms  can  in  fact 
be  classified  in  the  order  of  their  complexity.68  The 
earliest  rhythm,  genetically,  to  which  children  respond  is 

56  Biicher,  K.,  Arbeit  und  Rhythmus,  4th  edition,  Leipzig,  1909. 
"  Smith,  M.  K.,  Rhythmus  und  Arbeit,  Philos.  St.,  XVI,  1900. 
68  Biicher,  op.  cit.,  p.  359.  ••  Biicher,  op.  cit.,  p.  557  ff. 

80  Ibid.,  p.  360.  61  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  305. 

62  Ibid.,  p.  305.  «  Ibid.,  p.  392. 

84  Squire,  C.  R.,  A  genetic  study  of  rhythm,  Am.  J.  of  Psy.,  XII, 
1901,  p.  493. 
«  Ibid.,  p.  540. 


28  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

even  simpler  than  Poe's  spondee,66  which  implies  a  two- 
syllable  group.  The  evidence  for  this  is  that  children  in 
their  first  reactions  to  rhythm  in  speech  give  equal  value 
to  each  syllable,  thus  creating  what  Squire  calls  "the 
primary  form"  of  rhythm.  This  corresponds  to  what  the 
author  of  the  present  treatise  refers  to  as  "unitary  pulses." 
The  second  stage  in  the  children's  progress,  according  to 
Squire,  who  also  refers  to  Bohme,67  is  to  distribute  so  many 
accents  to  the  line,  irrespective  of  regularity.  There  is  no 
question68  that  grouping  by  two's  is  psychologically  prior 
to  grouping  by  three's.  One  of  Squire's  subjects,  a  boy,69 
succeeds  fairly  well  in  keeping  step  to  iambic  and  trochaic 
rhythm,  but  fails  completely  with  dactylic  and  anapaestic 
forms. 

Time  is  the  basis  of  rhythm,70  but  the  character  of  the 
grouping  is  not  necessarily  dependent  on  the  time-order. 
The  rhythm,  however,  will  become  unpleasant  if  the  rate 
of  succession  exceeds  "the  natural  rate  of  the  individual."  71 
The  negro's  rhythmic  ecstasy  is  not  due  to  associative 
factors,  such  as  are  emphasized  by  Lipps  and  Groos,  but  is 
due  to  the  feelings  produced  by  the  rhythm  itself.  Of 
these  the  simple  sense  feelings,  most  evident  in  the  case  of 
the  negro,  derive  their  pleasantness  from  "the  moderate 
and  regular  functioning  of  the  bodily  organs  and  the 
resulting  stimulation  of  the  cortex."  n  We  find,  however, 
in  another  place,73  that  feeling  is  not  essential  to  the 
perception  of  rhythm,  inasmuch  as  rhythmic  groups  occur 
in  states  of  indifference  so  far  as  feeling  is  concerned. 
Miss  Smith  is  considered 74  to  neglect  the  perceptual 

88  Poe,  E.  A.,  The  rationale  of  verse,  Works,  VI,  ed.  by  Stedman  and 
Woodberry,  N.  Y.,  1908,  p.  58. 

87  Bohme,  F.  M.,  Deutsches  Kinderlied,  etc.,  Leipzig,  1897,  p.  8. 

88  Squire,  op.  cU.,  p.  536.         8»  Ibid.,  p.  573.          70  Ibid.,  p.  541. 
71  Ibid.,  p.  588.  »  Ibid.,  p.  588  ff. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  587.                                                        74  Ibid.,  p.  586. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  29 

elements  in  rhythm;  not  so,  Wundt.  "All  the  phenomena 
of  rhythm  can  be  explained  by  the  facts  of  perception."  76 
"Perception  of  rhythm  may  fail  because  of  a  physiological 
defect,  auditory  or  motor."  It  may  be  due  to  purely 
"psychological"  causes,  inability  to  control  attention  or 
to  compare  sounds  or  movements,  etc.76  An  intelligent 
observer  may  not  direct  his  attention  upon  the  series  of 
sounds,  but  upon  the  reason  for  the  experiment,77  and  thus 
appear  deficient  in  rhythmic  perception. 

In  1904  Marbe  78  published  his  investigation  of  rhythm  in 
German  prose.  He  himself  scans  the  first  and  second  1000 
words  of  Goethe's  "St.  Rochusfest"  and  Heine's  "Harz- 
reise";  the  second  and  third  1000  are  scanned  by  a  collab- 
orator. The  method  of  scanning  consists  in  marking  the 
accented  syllables.  After  the  average  number  of  unac- 
cented syllables  per  interval  is  calculated,  and  the  frequency 
of  each  variety  of  "foot"  obtained  for  each  1000  words, 
the  conclusion  is  drawn  that  the  average  foot  is  shorter 
in  Goethe  than  in  Heine.  Following  Marbe's  method, 
Lipsky 79  undertakes  an  investigation  of  the  rhythm  of 
English  prose.  "Style  and  rhythm  of  prose  are  to  a  very- 
large  extent  identical." 80  Passages  from  various  English 
writers,  including  Browne,  Addison,  Lamb,  Carlyle,  Ruskin, 
Emerson,  Howells,  Spencer,  Henry  James,  and  Ingersoll  are 
scanned  according  to  Marbe's  method,  and  the  results 
tabulated.  Ruskin's  "Modern  Painters"  has  the  shortest 
foot-length;  "Spencer  has  both  the  longest  foot-length  and 
word-length."81  Browne,  Lamb,  and  Emerson  use  phrases 
of  three  accents,  to  a  large  extent.82  In  the  later  work  of 
Howells  the  measures  are  found  to  grow  closer;  the  rhythm 

76  Squire,  op.  tit.,  p.  586.          78  Ibid.,  p.  574.          "  Ibid.,  p.  575. 
.  78  Marbe,  K.,  Uber  d.  Rhythmus  d.  Prosa,  Giessen,  1904. 

79  Lipsky,  A.,  Rhythm  as  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  prose 
style,  N.  Y.,  1907. 

•°  Ibid.,  p.  40.  81  Ibid.,  p.  29.  M  Ibid.,  p.  26. 


30  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

of  Henry  James  grows  more  and  more  "open,"  etc.  Many 
of  the  results  of  Marbe  and  Lipsky  are  of  interest,  but 
their  procedure,  as  a  whole,  is  unscientific.  The  conditions 
under  which  the  scanning  was  made  were  not  regulated 
with  sufficient  care.  Very  slight  consideration  was  taken  of 
such  influences  as  fatigue,  habit,  practice,  and  suggestion; 
and  too  much  final  importance  is  laid  upon  the  results  of 
single  scannings  of  long  passages  made  by  individuals 
necessarily  subject  to  varying  moods  and  the  disturbing 
effects  of  time  and  place. 

The  danger  of  depending  too  much  upon  tapping  methods 
is  emphasized  by  Brown.83  Any  system  of  tapping  as  an 
accompaniment  to  sounds  not  made  by  the  observer 
involves  too  much  the  element  of  expectation,  and  is 
vitiated  by  the  observer's  individual  rhythmic  tendency. 
Freely  tapped  rhythms  are  of  great  value  in  the  study 
of  the  general  subject  but  do  not  concern  the  rhythm 
of  speech.  Experiments  with  the  phonograph  involve 
distortion. 

Brown  considers  the  error  of  method  up  to  date  to  be 
that  rhythm  has  been  treated  as  an  art  form  instead  of  as 
a  form  of  motor  expression.  Attention  should  be  directed 
to  the  speaker  rather  than  to  the  hearer,  who  is  open  to 
too  many  illusions  and  misconceptions.84  "Meaning"  inter- 
feres with  estimates  of  duration  and  intensity,  but  Brown 
disclaims  an  attempt  to  investigate  its  effect.86  Since 
tapping  by  the  speaker  controls  the  voice  too  much,  he 
makes  use  of  a  tambour  to  record  nonsense  syllables 
uttered  by  the  observer.  "Grouping  in  rhythm  is  an 
affective  experience  and  if  we  place  it  simply  in  the  dimen- 
sion of  strain  and  relaxation  it  becomes  at  once  clear  why 
no  regular  time  relations  are  necessary.86  The  regularity 
becomes  a  matter  of  recurrence  of  strain  at  the  end  of  a 

M  Brown,  W.,  Time  in  English  verse  rhythm,  N.  Y.,  1908,  p.  9  ff. 
M  Ibid.,  p.  2.  «  Ibid.,  p.  3.  *°  Ibid.,  p.  75. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  31 

definite  cycle.  The  muscles  may  take  a  longer  or  a  shorter 
time  to  accomplish  their  cycle  and  the  strain  may  not 
come  at  equal  intervals  of  time,  but  the  swing  is  there  and 
from  one  place  to  the  next  like  place  is  a  definite  mental 
state  held  together  by  the  continuous  circular  process." 

This  appears  to  be  an  attempt  to  remove  the  experience 
of  rhythm  from  too  definite  a  connection  with  the  dimen- 
sion of  time,  and  place  it  in  the  "dimension  of  strain  and 
relaxation."  In  1911  Brown87  seems  to  have  changed  his 
point  of  view.  After  saying  that  the  "only  undisputed 
character  of  rhythm  is  the  impression  of  regularity  which 
it  occasions,"  88  he  states  that  "all  recurrence  is  a  temporal 
matter,"89  and  that  rhythm  is  "primarily  temporal."90 
Accent  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  have  "points  of 
emphasis,"  but  it  is  not  the  distinctive  feature  of  rhythm.91 
"The  accentual  features  while  necessary  are  not  at  the 
root  of  the  phenomena."  w 

Wundt  M  regards  the  sensations  in  the  joints  and  muscles 
as  the  primary  origin  of  time-images.  There  is  no  real 
tune-sense,  but  temporal  properties  are  attached  to  our 
various  ideas.94  Thus  arise  images  of  speed  and  of  dura- 
tion. The  sensations  accompanying  the  perception  of  a 
time  series  of  auditory  stimuli  are  largely  due  to  tension  of 
the  ear-drum  and  action  of  the  musculus  tensor  tympani.96 
Automatic  rhythmic  movements  do  not  prove  a  conscious- 
ness of  time,  as  even  our  walking  is  usually  timeless. 
Such  movements  are  due  to  the  "physiological  rhythm  of 
the  innervation  process."  M  Nevertheless  from  our  walk- 
ing-step the  whole  body  takes  a  rhythm,  and  the  steps 

87  Brown,  Temporal  and  accentual  rhythm,  Psy.  Rev.,  XVIII,  1911. 

88  Ibid.,  p.  336.  89  Ibid.,  p.  343.  »°  Ibid.,  p.  344. 
91  Ibid.,  p.  344.              n  Ibid.,  p.  346. 

98  Wundt,  W.,  Grundzuge  d.  physiolog.  Psychol.,  Leipzig,  1911,  III, 
p.  24. 

M  Ibid.,  p.  2.  95  Ibid.,  p.  19.  "  Ibid.,  p.  4. 


32  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

themselves  give  us  time-images  as  soon  as  we  attend  to 
them.  The  lucky  coincidence  that  the  average  double 
step  is  approximately  one  second  (.98)  assists  us  in  esti- 
mating tune.  The  interval  of  time  most  easily  estimated 
lies  between  one  second  and  one-fifth  of  a  second.  One- 
half  a  second  or  the  duration  of  a  single  average  walking- 
step  may  be  considered  as  the  most  convenient  unit  or 
"indifference  point,"  in  regard  to  which  least  errors  of 
estimation  are  likely  to  occur.97 

The  cooperation  of  the  exciting  and  inhibiting  forces 
which  our  central  functions  undergo,  puts  all  life  upon  a 
basis  of  vibration.  Every  movement  has  a  definite  regu- 
larity or  law  of  its  own.  All  irregular  movements,  accord- 
ingly, can  be  considered  as  rhythmic  fragments.98  This  is 
of  particular  significance  in  connection  with  spoken  prose. 

In  general,  a  falling  or  trochaic  rhythm  is  usual  in 
German  unimpassioned  speech;  the  rising  or  iambic  form 
produces  an  exciting  effect.  In  Romance  languages,  the 
rising  rhythm  is  more  common.  In  the  development, 
however,  of  a  sense  of  rhythmic  "measure"  we  are  probably 
below  the  standard  of  the  Greeks.99 

Music  and  speech  both  have  their  probable  common 
origin  in  a  song-like  form  of  speech.100  The  march-song, 
work-song,  and  dance-song  are  united  in  the  primitive 
religious  song,  out  of  which  came  poetry.  Going  still 
further  back,  the  movements  of  the  body  in  walking  sug- 
gested regular  marching,  to  which  sound  accompaniments 
were  later  added.  Work  carried  rhythm  to  a  further  stage 
on  account  of  its  demands  for  regular  movement,  and 
finally  the  dance  emerges  after  musical  motives  have  been 
conceived.  Speech  thus  occupies  a  mediating  position, 
adding  more  complicated  motor  elements  to  the  preceding 
awkward  movements.  In  walking  we  get  a  natural  origin 

97  Wundt,  op.  tit.,  p.  13  ff.  ••  Ibid.,  p.  23  ff. 

88  Ibid.,  p.  15.  10°  Ibid.,  II,  p.  620. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  33 

for  rhythmic  perception,  but  later,  in  the  dance,  the  rhythm 
of  sound  in  music  reacts  upon  the  body.101 

Established  results  with  regard  to  time  illusions  are 
reviewed  by  Wundt.  Large  intervals  usually  are  judged 
too  small;  small  intervals,  too  large.  The  "indifference 
point"  at  which  they  are  most  correctly  judged  averages 
about  .6  second,  corresponding  to  a  single  walking-step. 
When  this  interval  is  "filled,"  it  is  usually  overestimated.102 
Since  there  is  no  absolute  time  measure,  illusions  refer  to 
relation  and  concern  either  temporal  size  (velocity  illu- 
sions) or  temporal  displacements.  A  regular  series  often 
seems  to  get  faster.  A  long  series  always  seems  faster  than 
a  short  series,  when  the  units  are  equal.  This  is  due  to 
attention.  The  difference  in  impression  between  "empty" 
and  "filled"  intervals  depends  upon  their  length.  A  filled 
interval,  if  sh'ort  (from  .5  to  1.5  seconds),  seems  longer 
than  an  equal  empty  interval;  but  if  long  (two  seconds  or 
over),  it  seems  less.  A  long  pause  before  or  after  a  note 
gives  the  effect  of  an  accent.  No  series  of  impressions  is 
possible  that  cannot  in  some  way  be  comprehended  as 
rhythmic.103 

According  to  Wundt,  the  pleasantness  of  rhythm  depends 
upon  two  elements:  the  repetition  of  feelings  of  tension 
and  the  contrast  between  feelings  of  tension  and  relaxa- 
tion.104 This  is  complicated  by  elements  of  speed  and 
number  of  accents.  Rising  rhythm  with  very  great 
acceleration  of  speed  causes  a  feeling  of  unpleasantness; 
falling  rhythm  at  very  slow  speed  causes  a  feeling  of 
tension.  The  more  accents,  the  more  excitement.  Accents 
crowded  and  clashing  cause  great  excitement;  irregularly 
distributed,  cause  excitement  plus  unpleasantness.  Rising 
rhythm  is  exciting;  falling  rhythm  is  soothing.  Between 
these  two  lie  series  of  an  amphibrachic  nature,  in  which 

101  Wundt,  op.  tit.,  Ill,  p.  32  ff.  m  Ibid.,  p.  48  ff. 

1M  Ibid.,  p.  39  ff.  l<*  Ibid.,  p.  144  ff. 


34  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

the  second  member  of  a  group  of  three  is  accented.108 
Unpleasant  effects  are  due  to  exceeding  the  limits  of  easy 
grasp  for  groups,  unmotivized  departures  from  a  rhythmic 
series,  or  merely  monotonous  repetition.106  The  affective 
tendency  of  rhythm,  in  general,  is  chiefly  to  excite  or  to 
soothe,  with  compensation  and  contrast  as  elements  of 
variety.107 

One  of  the  most  recent  investigations  of  the  psychology 
of  time  is  that  of  Benussi108  who  feels  that  past  research 
has  neglected  too  much  the  illusions  accompanying  filled 
intervals.  A  short  interval,  when  divided  in  two,  seems 
much  larger;  a  long  interval  with  manifold  filling  seems 
much  shorter.109  An  interval  seems  shorter  when  filled 
with  mental  work,  whether  hard  or  easy.110  Subjective 
time-size  depends  usually  upon  the  intensity  degree  of 
attention,  but  in  forced  cases,  upon  whether  the  similarity 
or  difference  of  the  impressions  bounding  a  time-interval 
is  the  more  striking.111  The  interval  diminishes  when  the 
two  limits  are  felt  as  a  group.  Benussi's  three  chief  factors 
in  time  perception  are:  I.  The  "individualizing"  of  inter- 
vals into  short,  long,  and  indifferent.  II.  The  distribution 
of  attention  during  time  perception.  III.  The  distribution 
of  "strikingness"  upon  the  contending  elements  of  filling, 
extension,  and  limits.112 

In  contrast  to  the  theories  for  the  origin  of  poetry 
advanced  by  Wundt,  Bticher,  and  others,  Verrier 113  main- 
tains that  its  origin  is  neither  in  the  rhythm  of  work  nor 
of  dancing,  but  in  the  prose  "segments"  of  every-day 
conversation.  These  segments,  whether  "short"  or 

106  Wundt,  op.  cit.,  p.  206.       106  Ibid.,  p.  142.        107  Ibid.,  p.  156. 

108  Benussi,  V.,  Psychologic  d.  Zeitauffassung,  Heidelberg,  1913. 

109  Ibid.,  p.  419,  uo  Ibid.,  p.  486. 
1U  Ibid.,  p.  5.  m  Ibid.,  p.  505. 

m  Verrier,  P.,  Essai  sur  les  prindpes  de  la  metrique  anglaise, 
Paris,  1909-1910,  III,  p.  71. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  35 

"long,"114  fall  within  the  limits  of  the  "indifference" 
interval  in  time  estimation.  The  longer  segments,  thus, 
do  not  exceed  three  syllables  or  the  length  of  a  rather 
slow  walking-step.  Segments  are  measured  from  strong 
vowel  to  strong  vowel  and  according  to  their  average 
length  each  person  is  accorded  his  "natural  rhythm"  or 
"vocal  step."  This  may  be  regarded  as  his  unit  for  speech 
measurement.  In  experimenting  upon  three  Englishmen,116 
Verrier  finds  "an  unconscious  tendency  to  bring  the  con- 
secutive rhythmic  segments  to  an  equal  duration."  There 
results  "a  relative  shortening  of  sounds,  according  as  the 
number  of  the  syllables  of  the  segments  increases."  Eng- 
lish prose  116  modulates  incessantly,  in  all  probability,  from 
two  to  three-beat  rhythm.  "Whether  there  is  or  not 
dependence  between  the  rhythm  of  pronunciation  and 
that  of  walking,  they  both  have  one  single  and  same  cause: 
the  necessity  of  coordinating  and  regulating  our  muscular 
movements,  in  a  word,  of  making  them  rhythmic,  in  order 
to  diminish  the  expense  of  energy."  117 

Emphatic  pauses  and  variations  due  to  feeling  cause 
"at  every  instant  accelerations  or  retardings  of  different 
kinds."  118  Rhythm  enjoys  irregularities  just  as  harmony 
enjoys  dissonances.119  The  equality  of  time-intervals  is  an 
illusion.  The  individual  rhythm  of  the  speaker  adapts 
itself  to  the  fluctuations  of  sentiment  without  giving  the 
impression  of  being  unrhythmical.  Rhythm  is  pleasing 
when  it  coincides  with  an  individual's  inner  rhythm, 
which  in  itself  is  subject  to  variations.120  In  any  case,  ar- 
tistic rhythm  depends  upon  the  return  of  the  beat  at 
equal  (apparently  equal)  intervals  of  time.121  "In  objective 

114  Verrier,  P.,  Essai  sur  les  principes  de  la  metrique  anglaise, 
Paris,  1909-1919,  III,  p.  63. 

116  Ibid.,  p.  67.      u«  Ibid.,  p.  70.     "7  Ibid.,  p.  35.     118  Ibid.,  p.  325. 

119  Verrier,  Les  variations  temporettes  du  rythme,  J.  de  Psy.  Norm,  et 
Path.,  1913,  I,  p.  18. 

uo  Verrier,  op.  tit.,  p.  16  ff.  "l  Ibid.,  p.  24. 


36  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

reality  the  feet  of  our  verses  approximate  absolute  equality 
in  the  same  degree  as  the  measures  of  music."  122  This 
conclusion  is  the  result  of  experiments  in  French  versifica- 
tion. In  general,  Verrier  appears  to  believe  that  rhythm 
depends  upon  the  illusion  of  equal  time-intervals  for  its 
basis,  but  enjoys  the  introduction  of  a  measure  of  irregu- 
larity per  se.  When  the  speaker  or  hearer  is  unconscious 
of  objective  irregularity  his  pleasure  in  the  illusion  of 
equality  is  what  predominates. 

The  "weight"  element  is  made  of  chief  importance  in 
the  investigations  of  Landry.123  Accent  itself  depends 
upon  "energy,  and,  above  all,  duration."  Rhythm  is 
defined  as  "the  march  of  energy,"  and  "the  relations  of 
size  and  succession  hi  number,  energy,  and  duration."124 
The  composite  effect  of  number,  duration,  and  energy  of 
syllable  constitutes  weight;  the  composite  effect  of  number, 
"ampleur,"  and  "weight,"  constitutes  "equilibrium."126 
Syllabic  equilibrium  is  the  basis  of  French  declamation.126 
No  very  definite  conclusions  are  drawn  for  the  constitution 
of  rhythm  in  prose,  although  a  number  of  interesting 
measurements  are  made. 

More  theoretical  in  its  nature  is  Saran's  treatment  of 
rhythm.  Rhythm  is  described127  as  "every  organization, 
pleasing  as  such,  of  sensuously  perceptible  occurrences." 
This  organization  implies  three  elements:  a  weight  grada- 
tion, a  time  gradation,  and  a  unification  based  upon  pleas- 
ingness.  Rhythm  is  purely  mental  in  its  origin.128  The 
psychic  impression  of  "weight"  is  due  to  phonetic  factors, 
such  as  stress,  pitch,  and  so  forth;  but  it  is  itself  an  ele- 

m  Vender,  L'isochronisme  dans  le  vers  franfais,  Paris,  1912,  p.  48. 
1M  Landry,  E.,  La  theorie  du  rythme  et  le  rythme  du  franfais   de- 
dame,  Paris,  1911. 

IM  Ibid.,  p.  40.  12S  Ibid.,  p.  37  ff.  1M  Ibid.,  p.  382. 

117  Saran,  F.,  Deutsche  Verslehre,  Miinchen,  1907,  p.  138. 
"»  Saran,  op.  cit.,  p.  139. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  37 

ment  of  accent  which  is  defined  as  "a  complex  of  selected  and 
clearly  organized  weight,  duration,  and  unity  relations."  m 
Sievers  is  criticized  for  confusing  weight  and  accent.  Artistic 
prose  is  seldom  rhythmic,  often  "  unrhythmic, "  but 
chiefly  "rhythmless,"  containing  an  element  of  ordering 
that  should  not  be  called  rhythm.130  In  these  distinctions 
Saran,  in  spite  of  his  view  that  rhythm  is  purely  a  matter 
of  intellectual  perception,  appears  to  stress  the  binding 
qualities  of  the  prose  itself,  rather  than  the  various  effects 
one  passage  might  have  upon  a  number  of  hearers.  A 
motor  theory  seems  to  be  distinctly  foreign  to  his  view  of 
the  subject,  which  as  a  whole  he  does  not  treat  in  thorough 
accordance  with  any  accepted  psychological  system.  His 
definition  of  rhythm,  moreover,  stressing  as  a  condition  the 
element  of  pleasantness,  excludes  the  well-known  cases, 
mentioned  by  Squire,131  where  the  perception  of  rhythm  is 
accompanied  by  feelings  of  indifference. 

Schipper132  defines  rhythm  as  "regular  order  in  the 
succession  of  different  kinds  of  motion."  "  All  rhythm, 
therefore,  in  our  dancing,  poetry,  and  music  comes  to  us 
from  ancient  times,  and  is  of  the  same  nature  in  these 
three  arts."  Dancing  is  the  typical  form  and  source  of 
all  rhythmic  movement.133  The  time  element  is  plainly 
emphasized  in  his  definition  of  poetical  rhythm  134  which  is 
a  "special  symmetry,  easily  recognizable  as  such,  in  the 
succession  of  syllables  of  different  phonetic  quality,  which 
convey  a  sense,  and  are  so  arranged  as  to  be  uttered  in 
divisions  of  time  which  are  symmetrical  in  their  relation 
to  one  another."  "In  prose  the  words  follow  each  other 
in  an  order  determined  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  by  the 
sense";  but  even  in  prose  "a  certain  influence  of  rhythmical 

119  Saran,  op.  cit.,  p.  21.  "°  Ibid.,  p.  19. 

181  Squire,  Genetic  study  of  rhythm,  586. 

m  Schipper,  J.,  History  of  English  versification,  Oxford,  1910,  p.  3. 

m  Ibid.,  p.  2.  M  Schipper,  op.  cit.,  p.  4. 


38  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

order  may  be  sometimes  observable."  In  Schipper's 
historical  treatment  of  the  various  theories  with  regard  to 
Old  English  versification  several  interesting  problems  are 
broached,  but  not  fully  discussed.  Among  others  is 
Jessen's  theory,135  developed  by  his  successors,  of  sub- 
stituting pauses  for  "beats  not  realized."  This  involves 
the  possibilities  of  syncopation  in  connection  with  metrics, 
which  have  been  to  such  a  large  extent  neglected  even  by 
those  who  have  sought  to  put  the  scanning  of  verse  upon  a 
purely  musical  basis. 

Schipper,  along  with  Sievers,  accepts  the  two-beat  theory 
for  the  alliterative  line  of  Old  and  Middle  English,  relying 
partly  upon  the  testimony  of  Gascoigne  and  Bishop 
Percy.136  According  to  this  view,  "the  alliterative  line 
obeys  only  the  requirements  of  free  recitation  and  is  built 
up  of  two  hemistichs  which  have  a  rhythmical  likeness  to 
one  another  resulting  from  the  presence  in  each  of  two 
accented  syllables,  but  which  need  not  have,  and  as 
a  matter  of  fact  very  rarely  have,  complete  identity 
of  rhythm."  137  The  inconsistency  between  this  view  of 
poetical  rhythm  in  Old  English,  in  which  the  relations  of 
time  are  completely  subordinated,  and  his  straightforward 
definition  of  poetical  rhythm,  already  quoted,  in  which 
"the  divisions  of  time"  are  "symmetrical  in  their  relation 
to  one  another"  is  hard  to  reconcile.  Either  the  definition 
is  false  or  Old  English  poetry  has  no  rhythm.  The  supposi- 
tion of  Sievers  that  it  was  meant  to  be  recited  freely  and 
not  sung  in  no  way  removes  the  inconsistency.  Perhaps 
the  simplest  way  for  Schipper  to  meet  the  situation 
would  be  to  revise  his  definition  of  rhythm;  otherwise  the 
prestige  of  the  two-beat  theory,  as  a  whole,  is  seriously 
impaired. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  attempt  a  psychological  review 

"»  Schipper,  op.  tit.,  p.  17.         M  Ibid.,  p.  21.         »»  Ibid.,  p.  24. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  39 

of  Saintsbury's  contribution  to  the  investigation  of  prose 
rhythm,138  inasmuch  as  he  himself  is  averse  to  nothing  more 
than  to  what  he  calls  "parade  of  systematic  theory."189 
His  book,  in  places,  suggests  hasty  composition.  In  the 
first  note  on  the  first  page  of  his  first  chapter,  the  author 
refers  to  Isocrates  as  preceding  Aristotle  in  starting  the 
whole  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  prose  rhythm.  Aristotle 
described  prose  as  "neither  possessing  metre  nor  destitute 
of  rhythm."  He  also  advocated  the  "paeon,  or  four- 
syllabled  foot,  as  the  base-rhythm."  14°  In  a  note  on  page 
2  Isocrates  is  quoted  as  saying  that  prose  should  be 
"mingled  with  all  kinds  of  metres,  especially  iambic  and 
trochaic."  On  page  4,  however,  Dionysius  of  Halicar- 
nassus  is  introduced  as  having  made  a  "bold  advance" 
upon  Aristotle  by  declaring  that  "no  rhythm  whatever  is 
banished  from  unmetred  composition,"  which  can  hardly 
be  considered  as  a  bold  advance,  since  it  is  almost  exactly 
what  Isocrates  had  said  at  the  historical  beginning  of  the 
discussion. 

Any  detailed  attempt  to  discuss  the  nature  of  rhythm 
is  absent.  In  view,  moreover,  of  the  long  series  of  scanned 
examples  of  well-selected  prose  passages  which  he  adduces 
in  evidence  of  the  "development"  of  rhythm  in  English 
prose,  and  describes  in  his  usual  pungent  and  entertaining 
style,  it  is  surprising  to  find  at  the  end  of  his  book  that  he 
has  nothing  more  to  say  with  regard  to  the  problem  with 
which  he  started  than  that  "where  Variety  itself  is  mistress 
and  queen  —  the  moon  that  governs  the  waves  of  prose,  as 
order  is  the  sun  that  directs  the  orbit  of  verse  —  the  ear 
once  more  is  judge."  141  This,  apparently,  strikes  a  note  of 
self-confessed  defeat. 

u8  Saintsbury,  G.,  A  history  of  English  prose  rhythm,  London,  1912. 
u»  Ibid.,  p.  463.  "°  Ibid.,  p.  3. 

141  Saintsbury,  op.  cit.,  p.  465. 


40  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

Rhythmic  feeling,  as  judged  by  pulse  and  breath,  has 
been  investigated  by  Drozynski. 142  One  of  his  most 
important  results  was  that  certain  rhythms  produced  a 
consistently  unpleasant  effect.143  A  purely  iambic  rhythm 
at  certain  rates  of  speed  produced  unpleasant  reactions. 
Series  of  anapaests  frequently  produced  disagreeable 
"tension." 144  Contrary  to  the  usual  opinion,  rhythmic 
groups  consisting  of  three  clashing  accents  and  a  single 
unaccented  member  were  found  at  certain  tempos  to  have 
a  quieting  effect.145  At  other  rates  of  speed  they  produced 
displeasure  and  considerable  excitement.  The  breath  was 
hurried  and  deepened,  and  the  pulse  was  shortened. 

Woodrow 146  has  studied  the  r61e  of  pitch  in  rhythm. 
Intensity  has  a  group-beginning  effect;  duration,  a  group- 
ending  effect;  but  pitch  has  "neither  a  group-ending  nor  a 
group-beginning  effect."  Simple  substitution,  therefore,  of 
the  factors  is  impossible.  The  r61e  of  kinsesthesis  in  the 
perception  of  rhythm  has  been  significantly  treated  by 
Ruchmich.147  "There  is  evidence  enough,  then,  that  most 
of  the  investigators  in  the  field  of  rhythm  conclude  that 
kinaesthesis  of  one  sort  or  another  plays  the  most  promi- 
nent part  in  rhythmical  perception  and  in  its  develop- 
ment." 148  After  quoting  Ribot's  familiar  statement: 149 
"Thought  is  a  word  or  an  act  in  a  nascent  state,  that  is  to 
say,  the  beginning  of  a  muscular  activity,"  Ruckmich 
reviews  the  more  or  less  recent  reaction  against  this  ideo- 


142  Drozynski,  L.,  Atmungs-  u.  Pulssymt.  rhythmischer  Gefuhle,  Pay. 
St.,  VII,  1912. 

"»  Ibid.,  p.  110.  144  Ibid.,  p.  111.  14S  Ibid.,  p.  109,  p.  139. 

146  Woodrow,  H.,  The  rdle  of  pitch  in  rhythm,  Psy.  Rev.,  XVIII, 
1911,  p.  77  ff. 

147  Ruckmich,  C.  A.,  The  rdle  of  kincesthesis  in  the  perception  of 
rhythm,  with  a  bibliography  of  rhythm,  Am.  J.  of  Psy.,  1913,  XXIV. 

148  Ibid.,  p.  311. 

149  Ribot,  T.,  Psychologic  de  I'attention,  Paris,  1889,  p.  20. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  41 

motor  theory  on  the  part  of  Thorndike,160  Titchener,161  and 
others.  "The  assumption  of  an  equivalent  between  the 
psychical  and  the  physical  is  an  error  into  which  the 
investigator  is  apt  to  fall  if  he  insists  upon  too  rigid  an 
interpretation  of  psycho-physical  data."  182  As  a  result  of 
his  experiments  it  was  found  that,  both  in  the  case  of 
sound  and  of  flashes  of  light  presented  for  rhythmization, 
kinaesthesis  (motor  reaction)  was  essential  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  rhythmical  perception.  "That  perception  once 
established,  however,  rhythm  might  be  consciously  carried, 
in  the  absence  of  any  sort  of  kinaesthesis,  by  auditory  or 
visual  processes."  153 

Weld  1M  has  made  a  study  of  the  psychology  of  musical 
enjoyment.  Most  disturbances  in  the  distribution  of  blood 
supply  recorded  during  the  experiments  are  found  to  be 
due  to  variations  in  attention  and  not  to  the  emotional 
quality  of  the  music  as  such.166  Music  quickens  the  pulse, 
whether  the  tempo  be  fast  or  slow.  Under  the  influence  of 
music,  the  chief  characteristic  of  breathing  is  irregularity; 
there  is  no  constant  correlation  between  breathing  and 
phrasing.  Muscular  reactions  of  all  kinds  are  of  great 
importance  in  the  appreciation  of  music.  Motor  responses 
occur  with  every  auditor,  varying  from  the  crude  reaction 
of  beating  time  to  the  "subtlest  play  of  sheer  images  of 
non-executed  movements."  The  complex  enjoyment  of 
music  is  due  to  timbre  and  tone,  motor  response  to  rhythm, 
association,  play  of  imagery,  pleasure  in  prediction,  and 
self-projection  into  the  music,  pervasive  mood,  and  finally 

uo  Thorndike,  E.  L.,  Idea-motor  action,  Psy.  Rev.,  XX,  1913,  p. 
91  ff. 

161  Titchener,  E.  B.,  Psychology  of  feeling  and  attention,  N.  Y., 
1908,  p.  309. 

1H  Ruckmich,  op.  cit.,  p.  313.  1B3  Ibid.,  p.  359. 

164  Weld,  H.  P.,  An  experimental  study  of  musical  enjoyment,  Am.  J. 
of  Ps.,  1912,  XXIII. 

166  Ibid.,  p.  298. 


42  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

intellectual  analysis  of  melody  and  harmony,  as  well  as  of 
the  technique  of  the  performer.  Motor  imagery  is  the 
most  important  factor  for  emotional  enjoyment;  auditory, 
for  intellectual  enjoyment.166  The  individual  hearers  may 
be  classified  as  analytic,  motor,  imaginative,  and  emotional 
types,  with  the  possibility  of  shifting,  on  occasion,  from 
one  type  to  another.167 

Seashore's  preliminary  report  on  the  measurement  of 
pitch  discrimination  168  is  the  basis  of  procedure  for  Vance's 
experiments 159  in  this  direction,  some  of  whose  results  are 
significant.  The  results  of  previous  investigation  indicate 
that  the  greatest  sensitiveness  to  small  differences  of  pitch 
lies  with  tenors  and  sopranos  in  the  lower  half  of  their 
voice  registers,  but  with  singers  of  bass  and  alto  parts,  as 
a  rule,  in  the  upper  half.  Vance's  observers  are  not 
practised  singers,  but  the  men  surpass  the  women  in 
discrimination  of  pitch  at  every  level  in  the  register.160 

Among  the  recent,  more  purely  theoretical  metricists, 
may  be  mentioned  Liddell 161  and  Thomson.162  For  the 
former  poetry  is  not  a  rhythm  of  sound  so  much  as  a 
"rhythm  of  ideas,"  "a  flow  of  attention  stresses."163  In 
the  application  of  this  theory  "waves  of  impulse"  figure 
instead  of  feet.164  There  are  some  advantages  in  .such  a 
point  of  view,  which  brings  the  multiple  factors  that  make 
up  so-called  "accent"  under  the  head  of  a  comprehensive 
mental  process  rather  than  under  the  head  of  a  single 

158  Weld,  op.  tit.,  p.  298  ff.  167  Ibid.,  p.  300  ff. 

U8  Seashore,  C.  E.,  The  measurement  of  pitch  discrimination:  A 
preliminary  report,  Psy.  Monog.,  XIII,  1910. 

169  Vance,  T.  F.,  Variation  in  pitch  discrimination,  Psy.  Monog., 
1914,  U.  of  la.  St.  in  Ps.  VI. 

180  Ibid.,  p.  148. 

181  Liddell,  M.  H.,  An  introduction  to  the  scientific  study  of  English 
poetry,  etc.,  N.  Y.,  1902. 

181  Thomson,  W.,  The  basis  of  English  rhythm,  Glasgow,  1904-1906. 
181  Liddell,  op.  cit.,  p.  237.  M  Ibid.,  p.  304. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  43 

factor  of  accent  such  as  intensity.  Apart  from  this, 
Liddell  has  not  as  yet  worked  out  his  theory  in  such  a  way 
as  to  satisfy  thoroughly  those  who  regard  the  problem  of 
rhythm  as  essentially  allied  to  that  of  music. 

Thomson,  for  instance,  feels  this  deficiency.166  All 
metricists  before  him  who  have  used  musical  notation, 
except  Lanier,  impress  him  either  as  having  used  it  in  a 
"perverted"  way  or  else  as  possessing  a  sense  of  rhythm 
that  is  "very  peculiar."  Lanier  is  criticized  166  for  declaring 
that  rhythm  exists  in  a  series  of  equal  consecutive  notes 
before  they  have  been  grouped  by  the  addition  of  accents. 
The  point  he  has  raised  is  one  of  the  greatest  importance. 
It  has  been  the  stumbling-block  of  almost  every  student  of 
rhythm  who  has  neglected  to  investigate  the  contributions 
of  specific  psychological  research  upon  the  subject.  It  is 
impossible  to  separate  in  consciousness  a  single  sound 
sensation  from  such  a  hypothetical  ungrouped  series  without 
the  double  process  of  a  focusing  and  slight  unfocusmg  of 
attention,  which  in  itself  produces  an  element  of  rhythmic 
alternation.  The  function  of  this  alternation  need  not  be 
considered  as  anything  more  than  what  is  necessary  to 
produce  an  impression  of  "  separateness "  between  the  two 
succeeding  pulses  or  it  may  be  regarded  as  an  element  of 
"contrast,"  pleasant  in  itself.  In  any  case,  Lanier  is  right 
in  announcing  his  impression  of  rhythm  from  such  an 
"ungrouped"  series,  which  is  ungrouped  only  in  a  higher 
sense,  the  members  of  the  series  being  considered  as  on  an 
approximate  level  with  each  other.  But  it  would  have 
been  absurdly  wrong  for  him  to  deny  that  each  member 
involves  in  itself,  as  a  sensation,  a  complex  of  mental 
processes  in  which  a  certain  element  of  contrast  is  inevitable. 
Without  this  contrast  it  would  be  impossible  to  pass  from 
what  we  consider  one  sensation  to  another. 

Thomson  is  right  in  demanding  some  sort  of  grouping 
165  Thomson,  op.  tit.,  p.  34.  1M  Ibid.,  p.  26. 


44  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

for  the  rhythmic  impression;  but  he  is  wrong  in  excluding 
from  the  possibility  of  such  an  impression  a  series  of  what 
the  writer,  in  the  present  treatise,  has  called  "unitary 
pulses,"  in  which  the  pulses  are  "units"  only  in  a  relative 
sense,  being  hi  themselves  necessarily  subdivided  by  at  least 
two  levels  in  the  general  wave-line  of  attention  in  order  to 
make  their  "separateness"  possible.  These  unitary  pulses 
correspond  to  what  Squire167  has  found  to  be  the  primary 
form  of  rhythm  for  children,  so  that  it  is  not  surprising 
that  Lanier,  although  he  failed  to  analyze  it  properly, 
should  also  have  felt  its  "primary"  significance.  It  is 
hard  for  the  present  writer,  moreover,  to  see  how  certain 
advanced  forms  of  modern  music,  such  as  that  of  Cyril 
Scott,  can  be  adequately  grasped  except  upon  such  a  basis. 
It  seems,  accordingly,  unfortunate  that  such  composers 
confine  themselves  or  are  confined  by  the  demands  of  their 
publishers  to  the  conventional  arrangements  of  bars  in 
two,  three,  four-time,  etc.  When  the  music  essentially 
departs  from  the  point  of  view  expressed  by  the  old  bar 
system,  it  is  fatally  misleading  to  the  hearer  and  unfair  to 
the  composer  to  restrict  him  to  a  convention  that  falsifies 
the  facts.  The  facts  seem  to  be  that  this  type  of  music  is 
based  upon  a  system  of  what  might  be  written  as  unit-beat 
bars,  if  bars  are  written  at  all,  in  which  the  up-and-down 
feeling  of  a  single  pulse,  recurring  at  apparently  equal 
tune-intervals,  supplies  all  the  necessary  level-changing  of 
sensation  to  complete  the  rhythmic  impression.  But  the 
pulses,  as  they  follow  each  other,  can  be  regrouped  with 
tremendous  freedom  (regarding  their  primary  grouping  as 
merely  serial),  and  this  is,  naturally,  what  appeals  to  the 
so-called  "modern"  temperament.  It  remains  to  be  seen, 
of  course,  how  far  such  freedom  can  be  extended  without  a 
reaction  of  confusion  and  consequent  unpleasantness  for 
the  hearer. 

UT  Squire,  op.  tit.,  p.  540  ff. 


HISTORICAL  SURVEY  45 

As  far  back  as  Meumann,168  theorists  such  as  Lotze  have 
been  accused  of  confusing  the  conventional  schedules  of 
musical  notation  with  music  itself  —  the  real  succession,  not 
of  sounds  nor  even  of  sound  sensations,  but  of  subjective 
"impressions,"  with  their  shifting  factors  and  subtle 
illusions.  It  seems  all  the  more  strange,  however,  that 
Meumann  himself  and  virtually  every  one  else  that  has 
followed  him  should  ignore,  after  all  these  warnings,  the 
full  application  to  the  problem  of  speech  rhythm  of  what 
music  really  is  —  not  what  it  appears  to  be  when  trammeled 
by  conventional  notation;  and  should  fail  to  see  that  the 
possibilities  of  acceleration,  syncopation,  and  substitutional 
equivalence,  together  with  subjective  illusion,  quite  easily 
cover,  for  the  sound-organizing  type  of  mind,  every  com- 
bination of  discrete  sounds  within  the  ordinary  limits  of 
human  sensibility  and  within  the  time-limits  of  grouping 
distance,  experimentally  established.  Accordingly,  there  is 
no  haphazard  series  of  sounds,  within  these  limits,  that 
cannot  be  organized  by  certain  minds,  when  properly 
attentive,  upon  a  temporal  basis.  The  problem  necessarily 
remains  a  matter  of  individual  difference.  Where  auditory 
and  motor  imagery  is  largely  absent,  where  subjective 
rhythm  is  weak,  where  tune-estimation  is  inaccurate,  where 
the  sense  of  "swing"  is  blurred  and  inefficient,  where 
elements  in  connection  with  beating  time,  such  as  syncopa- 
tion, are  a  source  of  confusion  rather  than  of  pleasure  and 
interest,  it  would  seem  preposterous  to  expect  an  organized 
response.  This  might  even  be  the  case  with  the  rhythm, 
divorced  from  melody  and  harmony,  of  such  a  passage  as 
the  selection  from  Chopin  in  the  present  series  of  experi- 
ments, which  two  of  the  observers,  deficient  in  some  of  the 
above  respects,  after  hearing  it  for  the  fourth  tune,  pro- 
nounced to  be  haphazard. 

It  is  only  fair,  however,  in  order  to  disclaim  too  great  an 
188  Meumann,  op.  cit.,  p.  263. 


46  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

appearance  of  novelty  in  the  statements  contained  in  the 
above  paragraph,  to  complete  this  brief  historical  survey 
with  the  words  of  Wundt:  "No  series  of  impressions  is 
possible  that  cannot  in  some  way  be  comprehended  as 
rhythmic."  1M 

169  Wundt,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  p.  53. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  SENSE  OF   SWING 

ELASTICITY,  —  that  is,  acceleration  followed  by  com- 
pensative retarding,  a  tightening  of  speed,  as  it  were, 
followed  by  an  untightening,  is  the  secret  of  a  measuring 
scale  for  rhythmic  experience.  The  "boom!  boom!  boom!" 
of  subjective  tune-units,  such  as  rattle  along  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  aggressively  rhythmic  person,  may  be 
accelerated  or  retarded,  within  certain  limits  defined  for 
each  such  individual,  without  destroying  their  value  as  a 
subjective  foot-rule  with  which  to  correlate  all  experience. 
In  other  words,  our  temporal  inches,  to  use  a  spatial 
metaphor,  are  merely  what  we  feel  to  be  inches.  In  the 
same  way,  larger  groups  of  time-intervals,  marked  off  by 
points  of  subjective  tension,  varying  in  stress,  may  form 
rhythmic  cycles  in  which  elasticity  (acceleration  and  re- 
tarding), with  its  accompanying  sensations  of  tightening 
and  untightening,  is  a  distinguishing  mark.  But  this 
acceleration  is  likely  to  be  no  simple  phenomenon.  The 
most  complex  relations  of  progressive  change  of  speed  are 
often  quite  evident  in  familiar  situations.  It  is  easy  to 
multiply  examples  out  of  the  common  occurrences  of 
ordinary  life. 

Every  child  who  has  felt  the  cutting  joy  of  that  progres- 
sion of  moments,  from  breathless  tip  to  breathless  tip  of 
height,  as  he  clutches  the  two  sides  of  his  rope  swing  and 
feels  the  uncanny  instant  of  poise  before  the  pendulum  of 
which  he  is  a  part  starts  downward  to  its  sweep  past  the 
ground-point;  every  boy  who  has  watched  the  small  gray 
ball  fly  from  the  pitcher's  hand  to  "first,"  while  a  runner, 

47 


48  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

who  continues  to  over-dare  his  distance,  checks  with  a 
swinging  turn  his  forward  motion,  and  for  interminable 
seconds  pauses  before  he  can  wind  up  his  forces  sufficiently 
to  send  himself  sliding  back  to  base;  every  man  who  has 
staked  his  fortune  on  some  golden  policy,  whose  repeated 
success  has  swept  him  over  the  level  of  stagnation,  but 
irresistibly  leads  him  to  the  balanced  moments,  which 
predestinate  a  new  impetus;  for  that  matter,  every  gibbon 
in  the  African  forest,  who  launches  his  lithe  body  fearlessly 
from  tree  to  tree,  and  in  the  last  instants  of  his  course, 
as  the  momentum  of  the  leap  dies  out,  extends  the  fingers 
of  his  paw  just  hi  time  to  catch  the  swaying  branch  that 
might  have  been  missed,  knows  the  feeling  of  elastic 
rhythmic  swing,  as  complicated  in  its  adjustments,  as  it  is 
familiar.  Every  Sargent  with  his  brush  and  every  Mischa 
Elman  with  his  bow  dallies  with  its  secrets.  They  know 
it  as  masters;  the  rest  of  us  are  its  slaves  —  it  enchants 
us  in  art,  excites  us  in  our  sport  and  defeats  us  in  the 
cumulative  efficiency  of  our  business  competitors. 

To  psychology,  however,  especially  in  the  field  of  objec- 
tive measurement,  not  only  rhythmic  swing  but  rhythm 
in  general  has  figured  as  a  riddle.  The  disconcerting  fact 
is  that,  up  to  the  present,  no  sufficiently  detailed  study  of 
individual  difference  in  rhythmic  experience  and  perform- 
ance has  been  made.  What  reactions  have  been  studied 
are  chiefly  in  connection  with  particular  phases  of  the 
problem.  Bolton,  for  instance,  did  not  attempt  to  rank 
his  observers  either  with  regard  to  sense  of  swing  or  ability 
to  perform  tasks  in  syncopation.  Seashore,1  Scripture, 
Andrews,  and  others  have  outlined  broader  programs,  and 
many  investigators  have  carried  out  special  tests;  but  no 
one  has  felt  impelled  to  undertake  a  comprehensive  series. 
Around  the  general  subject  of  rhythm,  however,  there  has 

1  Seashore,  C.  E.,  The  measurement  of  musical  talent,  Mus.  Quart., 
I,  1915,  p.  129  ff. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  49 

developed  a  voluminous  literature,  well  indicated  in  the 
bibliographies  of  Ruckmich,  and  very  briefly  and  incom- 
pletely reviewed  in  Chapter  II  of  the  present  volume. 

Of  course,  as  Meumann  made  clear,2  there  is  no  one 
"sense  of  rhythm,"  but  rather  a  highly  puzzling  complex 
of  mental  processes,  about  which  few  psychologists  are 
agreed.  Since  the  matter  is  so  complicated,  the  series  of 
brief,  rough  tests  which  the  present  writer  has  instituted 
must  be  taken  merely  as  a  beginning  in  the  study  of  in- 
dividual difference  in  this  direction.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  each  of  the  twelve  observers  was  examined  at  fairly 
long  sittings  on  four  or  five  days,  the  results  of  the  tests 
can  hardly  count  for  anything  but  partial  indications  of 
what  each  observer  was  able  to  do  at  a  certain  time  under 
certain  conditions,  made  as  uniform  as  the  general  situation 
permitted.  Native  ability,  as  apart  from  the  results  of 
practice,  was  only  dimly  ascertained,  nor  was  it  easy  in 
so  short  a  time  to  secure  data  with  regard  to  possible 
improvement. 

The  questionnaires  were  intended  to  help  the  observers 
understand  what  was  expected  of  them  and  to  assist  in 
their  "sizing  up,"  rather  than  to  produce  material  for 
conclusive  argument.  The  tests  for  types  of  mental 
imagery,  pitch  memory,  intensity  memory,  etc.,  were 
meant  to  serve  no  final  or  accurate  purpose.  Their  value 
consisted  chiefly  in  making  it  reasonably  plain  that  certain 
observers  were  at  least  not  high,  and  others  not  low,  in 
rank.  It  was  thus  ascertained  that  Observer  No.  4  was  at 
least  not  low  in  his  ability  to  remember  the  pitch  of  a 
particular  tone.  Observer  No.  10  was  proved  to  be  at 
least  not  high  in  memory  for  vowel  sounds,  and  most 
definitely  deficient  in  accurate  auditory  imagery.  Inas- 
much as  all  of  these  processes  are  involved  in  the  perception 
and  enjoyment  of  rhythm,  some  account  had  to  be  taken 
1  Meumann,  op,  cit.,  p.  268. 


50  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

of  them.  Complete  and  accurate  tests,  however,  were  out 
of  the  question.  It  was  the  same  with  the  measurements 
made  of  the  normal  walking-step,  rate  of  comfortable  tap- 
ping, etc. 

In  two  respects  an  effort  was  made  to  obtain  objective 
measurements  of  more  accurate  significance;  in  ability  to 
perform,  on  the  one  hand,  certain  syncopating  tasks  with 
average  precision  and  steadiness  (measured  by  Gross 
Constant  Error  in  equaling  a  standard  interval  together 
with  the  Average  Variable  Error  in  attaining  this  average 
approximation),  and,  on  the  other,  certain  tasks  in  repro- 
ducing a  series  of  six  time-intervals,  accelerating  and 
retarding  according  to  a  fairly  simple  progression.  In 
order,  however,  to  make  these  useful  as  forms  of  tests  to 
be  given  in  ranking  a  large  number  of  observers,  it  was 
impossible  to  make  them  anything  but  brief.  The  synco- 
pation tasks  have  already  been  referred  to  in  the  introduc- 
tion and  are  described  in  detail,  together  with  the  data 
obtained,  in  Appendices  II  and  III.  The  acceleration 
experiment  needs  more  explanation. 

In  view  of  the  extensive  literature  on  rhythm,  it  is 
surprising  that  no  experimental  psychologist,  according  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  writer,  has  brought  to  an  objective 
issue  the  "sense  of  swing."  It  is  not  easy  to  find  even 
among  writers  on  musical  aesthetics  a  penetrating  analysis 
of  the  relations  involved.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  uni- 
versally conceded  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  individual 
performance  of  a  musical  composition  or  the  combined 
effect  of  an  orchestral  production  that  is  so  vital  to  its 
success  as  the  power  to  achieve  what  we  consider  to  be 
"the  psychological  moment"  for  a  point  of  climax.  This  is 
at  the  root  of  all  of  our  discussions  about  tempo  rubato 
(stolen  time).  One  of  the  most  recent  musicians  to  express 
himself  upon  the  latter  subject  is  Saint-Saens,  who,  in  his 
address  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  1915,  decried 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  51 

the  modern  misunderstanding  and  abuse  of  tempo  rubato, 
and  insisted  that  even  in  Chopin  freedom  in  time  relations 
can  be  granted  only  to  the  melody.  Nevertheless,  upon 
just  what  principles  this  freedom  in  the  melody  is  to  be 
exercised  he  remains  impenetrably  vague.  It  is  in  such 
situations  that  the  mysterious  "sense  of  swing"  is  supposed 
to  officiate. 

But  surely  the  sense  of  swing  means  nothing  unless  it  be 
a  sense  of  progressive  movement.  When  a  melody  is 
played  in  strict,  unvarying  metronome  time,  swing  is  at  its 
lowest,  and  the  "psychological  moment"  for  an  accent  is 
merely  a  matter  of  remembering  that  two  and  two  make 
four.  What  is  usually  meant  by  swing  is  really  "elastic" 
swing,  where  the  simple  mathematical  relations  are  com- 
plicated for  purposes  of  expression.  Compensation  figures 
conspicuously.  Time  stolen  in  one  place,  is  repaid  in 
another.  What  Riemann  calls  "agogic  accent"  (the 
deliberate  addition  of  length  to  a  note,  instead  of  stress,  in 
order  to  give  it  prominence)  and,  of  course,  tempo  rubato 
(stolen  tune),  belong  to  this  category;  so,  though  it  does 
not  seem  to  be  generally  remembered,  all  effects  due  to 
accelerating  and  retarding  the  standard  tempo. 

No  satisfactory  grasp,  however,  can  be  obtained  of  the 
situation  until  we  realize  what  Wundt  maintains,3  that 
time-intervals  may  be  considered  in  terms  of  velocity. 
Wundt  himself  has  failed  to  clarify  the  final  problem  of 
swing,  but  his  insistence  on  the  importance  of  the  idea  of 
velocity  (how  fast  something  is  going)  is  the  best  beginning 
we  could  have.  Probably  those  persons  who  are  deficient 
in  motor  types  of  mental  imagery  will  never  find  a  satisfy- 
ing solution;  but  to  an  individual  who  can  easily  think  of 
his  finger  as  moving  back  and  forth  at  various  rates  of 
speed,  the  problem  resolves  itself  quite  simply. 

The  procedure  is  as  follows:  Imagine  a  series  of  vertical 
1  Wundt,  op.  cit.,  Ill,  passim. 


52  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

bars,  arranged  like  the  palings  on  a  fence,  or  the  pipes  of  a 
steam  radiator.  Better  still,  if  a  radiator  is  at  hand,  make 
actual  use  of  it.  First  take  a  stick  and  draw  it  across  the 
pipes  at  right  angles  to  their  direction,  so  that  a  series  of 
sounds  results.  If  the  velocity  of  the  stick  is  perfectly 
even,  a  series  of  regular  time-intervals  will  be  produced 
by  the  sounds.  Acceleration  and  retarding  (increase  and 
decrease  of  velocity)  are  the  immediate  result  of  varying 
the  speed  of  the  stick.  Now  move  the  stick  across  the 
pipes,  rather  deliberately,  with  some  melody  in  mind,  a 
sound  made  by  the  stick's  hitting  against  a  pipe  correspond- 
ing to  each  note  of  the  melody.  If  care  is  taken  not  to 
strike  the  pipes  too  hard,  but  to  keep  the  stick,  as  far  as 
possible,  in  continuous  motion,  it  will  become  at  once 
evident  that  the  varying  sizes  of  the  time-intervals  which 
produce  the  rhythmic  tune  of  the  melody  are  the  direct 
result  of  varying  rates  of  speed  in  the  stick. 

Now  review  the  illustration  for  a  moment:  The  vertical 
bars  are  at  equal  distances  from  each  other.  When  the 
velocity  of  the  stick  is  even,  a  series  of  equal  time-intervals 
are  marked  off.  By  varying  the  velocity  of  the  stick,  not 
only  effects  of  acceleration  and  retarding  are  produced, 
but  rhythmic  tunes  as  well.  So  long  as  the  increase  or 
decrease  in  speed  is  more  or  less  gradual,  we  retain  the 
impression  of  a  regular  series  becoming  faster  or  slower; 
as  soon  as  the  changes  in  speed  are  not  only  much  more 
marked,  but  assume  the  relations  of  simple  proportion  to 
each  other  (3:1,  1:3,  2:3,  1:6,  etc.),  the  impression  of  a 
rhythmic  tune  becomes  possible. 

Any  variation  in  the  length  of  the  time-intervals,  intro- 
duced for  the  purpose  of  musical  expression  (this  includes 
"agogic  accent,"  tempo  rubato,  accelerando,  ritardando,  etc.), 
will  thus  be  due  to  varying  rates  of  speed  in  the  stick,  in 
addition  to  a  similar  origin  for  the  rhythmic  tune  itself. 
Varying  rates  of  speed,  in  a  broad  and  general  sense,  need 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  53 

now  to  be  distinguished  from  the  specific  form  in  which 
they  can  appear  as  "progressive  motion,"  which  means 
nothing  more  than  varying  rates  of  speed  in  which  the 
variation  is  roughly  spoken  of  as  "gradual,"  and  more 
accurately  as  occurring  according  to  some  law  of  progressive 
increase  or  decrease.  An  interval,  for  instance,  of  at  first 
one  second,  is  shortened  by  one  tenth  of  a  second,  succes- 
sively, until  it  becomes  three  tenths  of  a  second,  after 
which  it  is  lengthened  by  similar  steps  until  it  reaches  its 
former  size.  This  would  be  a  case  of  rapidly  progressing 
acceleration  and  retarding.  The  rate  of  decrease  in  the 
interval,  or  the  rate  of  increasing  velocity  in  the  moving 
stick,  could  be  expressed  by  a  mathematical  equation. 
Another  equation  could  express  the  retarding  movement. 
The  number  of  ways  in  which  an  interval  could  become 
progressively  shorter  is,  of  course,  infinite.  The  point  to 
keep  clear  is  that  every  "gradual"  (i.e.,  not  jerky)  pro- 
gression, such  as  is  plainly  implied  in  what  we  mean  by 
swing,  must  be  subject  to  some  law,  instinctively  felt,  no 
matter  how  difficult  to  phrase. .  The  "sense  of  swing,"  then, 
would  mean  the  ability  to  move  according  to  progres- 
sive laws,  however  occult,  and  to  feel  instinctively  in  the 
performances  of  others  the  lawful  course  of  their  progres- 
sion, in  case  they  conform  themselves  to  what  we  mean  by 
"proper  swing."  The  "psychological  moment"  for  an 
accent,  thus,  is  merely  the  moment  which  the  progression, 
as  suggested  by  what  has  already  occurred,  seems  to 
demand.  A  musician  ranks,  accordingly,  as  high  in  thfe 
respect  if  he  can  suggest  to  us  such  impelling  progressions 
that  we  are  able  in  a  measure  to  anticipate  the  moment  for 
the  climax,  and  rejoice  with  him  in  his  achieving  the  final 
note,  without  undue  delay  or  hurry. 

The  chief  reason  for  recommending  the  point  of  view  of 
objective  velocity,  as  illustrated  by  the  equi-distant  pipes 
of  the  steam  radiator  across  which  the  stick  is  drawn,  is 


54  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

that  all  our  familiar  forms  of  music  are  likely  to  involve  a 
moving  object,  whether  it  be  the  bow  drawn  across  a  vio- 
lin or  the  fingers  making  the  stops,  the  lips  of  the  singer 
or  the  unseen  vocal  cords  or  the  breathing  movements  of 
the  body. 

When  an  observer  taps  upon  a  key  or  a  pianist  trills,  the 
fingers  move  through  approximately  equal  distances  of 
space;  but,  according  to  their  average  velocity,  the  taps 
or  the  trills  mark  off  time-intervals  of  greater  or  smaller 
size.  So  when  rhythmic  response  takes  the  form  of  danc- 
ing, the  feet  take  steps  of  approximately  equal  size,  but  at 
different  rates  of  speed,  according  to  the  music. 

This  point  of  view  leads  us  to  a  method  of  testing  in- 
dividual difference  in  the  sense  of  swing.  Suppose  that  an 
observer  hears  a  series  of  six  time-intervals  produced  by  rel- 
atively even,  unobtrusive  clicks  from  an  electric  sounder,  and 
is  asked  to  reproduce  the  series  as  accurately  as  possible 
by  means  of  tapping  with  one  finger  upon  an  electric  key 
attached  to  a  kymograph,  which  records  his  reproduction. 
At  each  tap  his  finger  moves  through  an  approximately 
equal  space.  Whether  it  moves  evenly  or  by  jerks,  its 
average  velocity  in  covering  this  space  is  what  determines 
whether  two  taps  come  close  together  or  far  apart.  If  the 
seven  taps  he  makes,  in  order  to  produce  six  intervals,  each 
cover  this  space  with  a  certain  average  velocity,  regularly 
repeated,  the  six  time-intervals  will  be  exactly  equal. 
But,  in  order  to  make  the  experiment  a  test  for  swing,  the 
standard  six  intervals  which  he  is  to  reproduce  are  given 
objectively,  according  to  the  following  progression  in  size: 
.7,  .6,  .5,  .5,  .6,  .7  sec.  In  other  words,  they  form  an 
accelerating  and  retarding  series,  in  which  the  laws  of 
decrease  and  increase  can  be  phrased.  The  proportion, 
however,  between  .7  and  .6  is  not  of  a  sufficiently  simple 
nature  for  any  one  to  recognize  it  by  ear  in  such  a  way 
that  it  could  be  announced  in  terms  of  numbers.  It  would 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  55 

have  to  be  caught  and  reproduced  very  largely  by  instinc- 
tive processes. 

Each  observer  is  thus  rated  according  to  the  degree  of 
precision  with  which  he  can  reproduce  this  bit  of  accelera- 
tion and  retarding.  Unfortunately  for  the  finality  of  the 
results,  individuals  differ  in  their  ability  to  perform  tapping 
tasks  with  ease,  so  that  it  is  possible  for  an  observer  to 
make  a  bad  record  largely  on  account  of  his  confusion  or 
awkwardness  when  confronted  with  the  problem  of  adjust- 
ing his  fingers  for  a  tapped  reproduction  of  a  sound  impres- 
sion. For  this  reason  the  tapped  records  were  not  taken  as 
sufficient  in  themselves  to  determine  an  observer's  rank. 
Sound-photography  furnishes  in  some  respects  a  tremendous 
improvement  in  the  matter  of  obtaining  more  genuine 
information.  In  connection  with  investigating  the  sense  of 
swing  in  speech,  it  seems  undoubtedly  to  be  superior  to 
anything  else. 

Inasmuch  as  any  consideration  of  the  swing  of  a  series 
leads  to  problems  which  concern  the  memory  processes, 
most  of  the  tests  in  this  connection  were  planned  to  be 
memory  tests  (not  tests  in  immediate  discrimination). 
Considerable  intervals  elapsed,  according  to  schedule, 
before  the  observer  began  his  reproduction,  even  in  the 
tapping  records.  With  the  records  by  sound-photography 
the  following  plan  was  carried  out:  After  the  observer  has 
finished  his  tapping  reproductions,  and  has  thus  heard  the 
accelerating  series  twenty-four  times,  as  given  by  the 
electric  sounder,4  he  is  told  to  listen  to  it  three  more  times, 
and  accompany  it  each  time,  as  accurately  as  he  can,  by 
uttering  the  word  "top"  for  every  click  of  the  sounder. 
Then  he  is  to  tap  a  reproduction  of  the  series,  uttering 
again  the  word  "top"  each  time  that  he  taps  the  key. 
On  the  second  day,  when  he  hears  his  two  "best"  tapping 
records  reproduced  on  the  Meumann  time-sense  machine, 
4  Appendix  II,  section  vii. 


56  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

with  a  chance  to  compare  them  with  the  original  series  in 
both  orders  (before  the  standard  series  and  after  it),  he 
understands  that  he  is  hearing  this  standard  series  for  the 
last  tune.  One  week  afterward,  without  any  tapping  or 
voice  practice  between,  he  is  to  reproduce  the  series,  as 
well  as  he  can  remember  it,  by  uttering  seven  "top's"  as 
he  stands  before  the  photographing  machine.  The  measure- 
ment of  his  intervals  is  an  easy  matter,  inasmuch  as  the 
distortions  that  occur  through  the  use  of  diaphragms  affect 
nothing  but  the  relations  of  stress.  By  taking  the  photo- 
graphs with  noiseless  apparatus  in  a  virtually  sound-proof 
room,  the  initial  impulse  from  the  word  "top"  is  plainly 
recorded. 

In  Appendices  II  and  III  are  explained  the  various  meas- 
urements which  are  combined  in  a  final  grading  value,  in- 
tended merely  as  a  convenient  way  of  ranking  observers 
with  regard  to  their  ability  to  catch  and  to  remember  and 
to  reproduce,  under  the  conditions  of  the  experiment,  the 
"swing"  of  the  six  intervals.  What  amount  of  effective 
swing  each  of  them  could  produce  as  musicians,  speakers, 
etc.,  if  left  to  their  own  devices,  is  another  matter.  A 
beginning  in  the  direction  of  this  sort  of  investigation  has 

been  made  with  an  examination  of  their  various  tapping 

* 

versions  of  the  following  arrangement  of  words:    "Prose 
*****  * 

is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  while  poetry 

*  *          *       *  *  * 

is  opposed  to  prose,  prose-poetry  is  opposed  to  any  poetry 
* 

that  may  be  composed  in  any  other  way  than  that  of 
* 

prose." ' 

It  makes  very  little  difference  what  the  processes  are  by 
means  of  which  an  observer  catches  the  progressive  move- 
ment in  question.    With  some  the  memory  is  achieved  no 
doubt  very  largely  by  means  of  memories  of  judgments, 
5  The  results  are  listed  in  Appendix  III,  section  xxv. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  57 

rather  than  by  carrying  in  the  mind  an  auditory  or  motor 
reproduction  of  the  original  series.  The  chief  point  to  be 
determined  is  simply  this:  Did  the  observer  catch  the  rate 
of  progression?  Would  he  have  been  able  to  predict  "the 
psychological  moment"  at  which  the  next  click  was  due? 
If  he  cannot  even  approximate  the  rate,  and  actually 
falsifies  the  general  trend  of  progression  —  that  is,  remem- 
bers the  acceleration  as  retardation  —  we  may  be  fairly 
certain  that  he  is  deficient  in  a  sense  of  swing.  If  we  find 
him  consistently,  in  various  forms  of  the  test  (tapping  his 
reproduction,  speaking  it,  drawing  it  by  dividing  a  line 
into  segments,  announcing  verbally  his  judgment,  etc.), 
preserving  the  relations  between  the  six  intervals  with  a 
high  degree  of  accuracy,  and  making  no  falsifications  of 
general  trend,  we  have  very  good  reason  to  believe  that 
his  sense  of  swing  is,  roughly  speaking,  good.  Since, 
however,  we  are  really  dealing  with  no  one  "sense,"  but  a 
complex  of  processes,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  put  too 
definite  or  high  a  value  upon  our  results,  but  weigh  them  in 
conjunction  with  all  the  other  evidence  we  may  be  able  to 
obtain.  This  means  that  the  combination  of  conditions 
in  this  experiment  may  have  been  favorable  to  one  indi- 
vidual at  the  expense  of  another,  etc. 

What  it  seems  we  can  attain  is  a  clearer  attitude  toward 
the  essential  elements  in  swing  —  the  perception,  enjoy- 
ment, and  institution  of  progressive  movement  in  the 
sphere  of  what  we  do  as  well  as  of  what  we  hear  and  see. 
There  are  some  who  instinctively  catch  the  modulus  of 
change.  They  can  sniff  at  an  incipient  climax  and  foretaste 
the  end.  Consequently,  if  the  singer  or  violinist  to  whom 
they  are  listening  misses  his  accent,  their  souls  are 
wrenched.  There  are  some,  too,  who  can  follow  certain 
trails  but  not  others.  Perhaps  it  is  not  so  much  because  of 
a  lack  of  subtlety  of  sense  as  of  a  lack  of  interest  in  the 
species  of  game  that  is  being  tracked.  Observer  No.  11 


58 

Seconds 
1.0 


THE  RHYTHM   OF  PROSE 


.8 
.7 

.t 

.5 

A 
.3 
.2. 


a 

-C 
->-> 
OB 

C 


Intervals  113*54 

FIGURE  I.  —  Test  for  the  sense  of  "swing":  Series  of  six  accelerating 
and  retarding  intervals,  produced  by  the  time-sense  machine  as  a  stand- 
ard for  each  O  (observer)  to  duplicate  by  tapping  on  an  electric  key. 
The  length  of  each  interval  is  indicated  in  the  graph  by  a  vertical  line. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  59 

evinces  subtlety  of  perception  in  the  swing  of  series 
marked  by  electric  clicks.  His  personal  interests  are  con- 
nected with  research  work  in  the  psychological  laboratory, 
where  he  is  familiar  with  sounds  from  recording  instruments. 
According  to  his  own  statements,  the  swing  of  verse  or 
prose  means  very  little  to  him;  his  interest  in  music  is 
not  marked.  Quite  different  is  the  case  of  Observer  No.  3, 
who  speaks  of  thrilling  from  head  to  foot  in  response  to 
music,  and  yet  who  fails  consistently  in  every  test  for 
accurate  perception  of  rhythmic  swing.  His  sense  of 
melody,  apparently,  is  keen,  and  he  ranks  high  in  the  test 
for  memory  of  pitch.  Since  he  enjoys  rhythm,  in  general, 
it  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  he  lacks  interest  in  elastic 
swing.  It  is  simply  that  his  perceptions  of  correlated 
time-intervals  are  inexact. 

Figure  1  represents  the  swing  of  the  standard  series  of 
intervals  (.7,  .6,  .5,  .5,  .6,  .7  sec.),  hurrying  steadily  to  a 
moment  of  poise  and  then  slowing  up  to  the  original  pace. 
Figure  2  shows  the  attempts  of  three  observers  to  catch 
this  line  of  swing  and  reproduce  it  by  taps  on  the  electric 
key.6  Observer  No.  1  made  a  very  good  reproduction 
with  regard  to  general  trend,  precision,  arid  steadiness. 
The  line  in  the  illustration,  which  is  the  result  of  graphing 
a  recorded  performance,  shows  an  elastic  sweep  fairly  close 
to  that  of  the  movement  of  sounds  that  was  being  imitated. 
Observer  No.  10  caught  the  first  part  of  the  movement,  but 
failed  to  reproduce  the  moment  of  poise  in  the  middle, 
and  clearly  falsified  the  swing  of  the  last  three  intervals. 
Observer  No.  2  very  plainly  falsified  every  relation  involved 
in  the  progression.  Instead  of  a  sweeping  dip,  his  line 
suggests  the  teeth  of  a  saw. 

'  The  attainments  of  the  various  observers  in  reproducing  the  swing 
or  progressive  movement  of  the  six  standard  accelerating  and  retard- 
ing intervals  are  recorded  in  the  tabulations  for  general  trend,  average 
precision  (Gross  Constant  Error),  and  steadiness  (Average  Variable 
Error),  listed  in  Appendix  III,  section  vii. 


60 


Seconds 


THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

.......  Ono.l's  line  of  swing 

_  _  __  Ono.l's     »'  **  »> 

_.,_._  Ono.lO's     *»  »  »» 
Standard  »'  "  " 


0 
Intervals  I 

FIGTJHE  II.  —  Test  for  the  sense  of  "swing"  :  Graph  of  the  reproduc- 
tions of  three  individuals,  attempting  to  catch  the  "swing"  of  the 
standard  series  of  intervals  given  by  the  time-sense  machine. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SWING  61 

Imitative  facility,  however,  is  after  all  merely  a  partial 
aspect  of  the  sense  of  swing.  In  addition  to  the  ability  to 
reproduce  elastic  changes  of  tempo,  there  is  needed  a 
correlation  of  mental  processes  capable  of  preserving  in  the 
midst  of  such  progressive  movement  the  impression  of  a 
unit  of  measure;  that  is,  of  enjoying  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
speed  in  a  series  of  unitary  pulses,  without  losing  alto- 
gether their  fundamental  yard-stick  value.  The  subjective 
yard-stick  is  necessarily  of  rubber,  but  like  rubber  it  has 
its  normal  limits  of  stretch  and  compression,  which  can  be 
roughly  estimated.  If,  then,  the  problem  of  finding  rhythm 
in  prose,  as  it  resolves  itself  for  those  aggressively  endowed, 
depends  on  the  conjuring  up  of  rhythmic  tunes  for  appar- 
ently irregular  sequences,  and  if  the  processes  by  means  of 
which  such  tunes  emerge,  involve  what  we  term  elasticity 
in  the  time-units  employed,  it  should  be  clear  that  a  fair 
amount  of  the  sense  of  swing  —  the  ability  to  gauge,  to 
reproduce,  and  to  unify  elastic  sequences,  including  not 
only  simple  compensative  effects  of  acceleration  and 
retarding,  but  also  "agogic  accent"  and  tempo  rubato  —  is 
one  of  the  set  of  essential  elements  in  aggressive  endowment 
whose  full  quota  is  necessary  for  the  ready  summoning  of 
these  "tunes"  that  answer  the  ancient  riddle. 


CHAPTER  IV 

RHYTHMIC  TUNES 

"It  is  the  landscape,  not  of  dreams  or  of  fancy,  but  of  places 
far  withdrawn,  and  hours  selected  from  a  thousand  with  a  miracle 
of  finesse." 

THIS  sentence  from  Walter  Pater l  was  chosen  as  the 
source  of  the  first  of  the  five  series  of  drum-beats,  per- 
formed by  Observer  No.  1,  and  recorded  on  the  phono- 
graph.2 A  tap  was  made  for  each  syllable,  "hours"  being 
given  two  taps.  When  heard  by  the  other  observers,  who 
were  ignorant  of  its  source,  this  succession  of  taps  was 
graded  as  the  "most  elusive"  of  the  five  sets  by  some 
observers,  and  by  others,  as  second  in  elusiveness.  Since 
two  of  the  five  series  thus  compared  were  haphazard 
arrangements,  there  is  no  reason  to  question  the  irregularity 
of  the  beats  of  this  particular  set  in  spite  of  any  regulating 
effect  that  might  be  due  to  tapping  or  other  adventitious 
causes. 

In  order  to  test  the  validity  of  Wundt's  statement  about 
the  possibility  of  conceiving  any  succession  of  impressions 
as  rhythmic,  the  observers  were  given  a  chance  to  hear 
the  passage  eight  times  altogether.3  On  the  first  hearing 
it  was  graded,  together  with  the  other  members  of  the  set 
of  five,  for  relative  "elusiveness."  On  the  second  hearing 
the  observers  were  instructed  to  attempt  to  beat  strict 
time  to  each  of  the  set,  and  record  their  success;  on  the 

1  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  from  The  Renaissance,  MacMillan  ed.,  Lond., 
1914,  p.  111. 

1  See  Appendix  II,  section  xxvii. 
'  See  Appendix  II,  sections  xxvii,  xxix,  xxxiv. 

62 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES 


63 


third,  to  keep  the  possibilities  of  syncopation  in  mind  and 
to  beat  a  more  elastic  unit,  accelerating  and  retarding, 
again  recording  their  success;  on  the  fourth,  to  pronounce 
judgment  as  to  which  of  the  set  represented  prose,  which 
music,  and  which  purely  haphazard  arrangements,  together 
with  a  second  grading  of  each  passage  for  "elusiveness." 
As  a  result  of  this,  Observer  No.  12,  who  on  the  first 
hearing  had  graded  the  Pater  series  as  the  most  elusive, 
now  judges  it  to  be  regularly  musical.  Observer  No.  7, 
who  had  graded  it  as  next  to  the  most  elusive,  also  pro- 
nounces it  now  to  be  regularly  musical. 


Schedule  I: 


accel. 


rit. 


accel. 


rit. 


2    •     £  » 

-i 

.     a  - 

i 

A  M 

£  •  • 

A    3 

A  . 

a 

q  j  tr 

H 

5 

= 

a 

Ed  ' 

1  £=' 

£== 

c 

J 

B 

Schedule  II: 


oece/. 


i/^|g  ^'fcri^-1 


2 
^    .8 


occeZ. 

A   .  -       A 


^     •     £ 

PTT 


a  a 


FIQTJKE  1.   Rhythmic  Schedules  used  in  connection  with  the  sentence 
from  Walter  Pater 

•After  the  fourth  hearing  the  Pater  series  was  heard 
independently  of  the  others.  Accordingly,  on  the  fifth 
hearing  of  it  the  observers  reported  upon  their  affective  re- 


64  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

action  to  it  at  this  stage  of  repetition.  On  the  sixth  and 
seventh,  schedules  were  introduced  (see  Figure  1).  These 
were  simply  records  of  two  ways  of  subjectively  organizing 
the  beats  as  evolved  by  the  experimenter  after  repeated 
hearings. 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  the  observers  received  most 
assistance  from  the  schedules,  when  the  experimenter, 
before  the  actual  hearing  of  the  beats  from  the  phonograph, 
not  only  tapped  off  the  schedule  on  the  phosphor-bronze 
drum,  but  hummed  a  simple  tune  (purely  fictitious), 
suggested  by  the  rhythm  as  indicated  in  the  notation.  In 
this  way,  observers  who  had  failed  to  organize  the  series 
by  themselves,  found  various  degrees  of  satisfaction  in 
applying  to  the  beats  the  schemes  of  organization  indicated 
in  the  two  schedules.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  Observer  No.  7  pronounced  all  the  five  series,  including 
the  two  purely  haphazard  arrangements,  to  be  thoroughly 
musical  in  their  impression  before  he  had  seen  the  schedules. 
Furthermore,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  schedules 
are  merely  two  of  the  many  ways  in  which  the  experi- 
menter might  subjectively  organize  the  passage  in  question. 
They  happen  to  fall  readily  into  elastic  three-time,  or  a 
combination  of  three  and  two-time.  Among  such  possible 
forms  of  organization,  those  that  in  his  case  have  occurred 
most  frequently  are  based,  not  upon  a  unit  grouped  in 
two's  or  three's,  but  upon  unitary  pulses,  syncopating 
freely  with  the  impressions  of  accent  in  the  actual  prose. 

Unless  the  explanations  already  made  in  previous  chap- 
ters about  syncopations  and  spontaneous  substitution  are 
thoroughly  understood,  any  statement  about  unitary 
pulses  and  their  function  will  be  misleading.  Taking  for 
granted,  however,  that  this  understanding  has  been  at- 
tained, the  following  is  an  attempt  to  make  clear  the  usual 
form  of  rhythmic  experience  felt  by  the  writer:  To  begin 
with,  there  is  always  implicated  in  the  complex  of  his 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES  65 

mental  processes,  either  plainly  evident  or  susceptible  of 
easy  evocation,  a  subjective  time-unit,  sometimes  affected 
by  heart-rate,  but,  as  a  rule,  corresponding  apparently  to 
his  average  walking-step  (a  little  over  .7  sec.),  and,  like 
any  walking-step,  capable  of  accelerating  and  retarding. 
These  unitary  (ungrouped)  time-intervals  are  marked  off  by 
a  series  of  what  appear  to  be  muscular  tensions  in  the 
region  of  the  head,  sometimes  localized  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  ears  (musculus  tensor  tympani),  sometimes  in  the 
throat,  or  elsewhere.  These  tensions  sometimes,  but  not 
always,  coincide  with  concomitant  heart-beats.  In  spite  of 
the  elastic  nature  of  the  intervals  thus  formed,  they  occa- 
sionally remain  more  or  less  regular,  and  thus  serve  as  a 
standard  for  gauging  the  varying  rate  of  the  pulse,  when 
the  latter  is  felt.  After  the  pulse  has  been  felt  conspicu- 
ously, however,  the  unitary  intervals  seem  to  be  affected  by 
its  rate  and  tend  to  coincide.  Apparently  the  memory  of 
the  normal  walking-rate  persists  in  its  influence  more  than 
the  memory  of  the  normal  heart-rate,  which  is  about  .9 
sec.  in  the  present  case.  Perhaps,  as  each  step  is  taken,  the 
concomitant  tension  of  some  obscure  muscle  of  the  head 
occurs,  which  thus  furnishes  the  means  of  repeating  the 
walking-rate,  without  carrying  the  innervation  as  far  as  the 
legs.  Breath-rate  does  not  seem  to  affect  these  inner 
pulses  so  much  as  the  pulses,  or  their  multiples,  affect 
breath-rate;  that  is,  the  breathing  muscles  sometimes  have 
a  tendency  to  reserve  their  action  at  the  moment  of  initiat- 
ing inhalation  or  exhalation,  in  order  to  fall  in  with  the 
phase  of  a  unitary  pulse.  Usually,  however,  the  relation 
of  the  two  is  one  of  free  syncopation  rather  than  coinci- 
dence. When  attention  rests  upon  this  automatic  syncopa- 
tion by  means  of  which  breathing  and  the  time-pulses  are 
so  easily  coordinated,  a  feeling  of  distinct  pleasure  results, 
quite  parallel  to  what  occurs  in  the  hearing  of  prose.  The 
measurement  of  spontaneous  tapping  at  a  comfortable  rate 


66  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

showed  that  the  writer's  tapping  approximated  twice  his 
walking-rate.  In  Appendix  III,  section  x,  several  observers 
show  similar  correlations  between  various  rates  of  comfort- 
able movement.  For  Observer  No.  1,  for  example,  tap  and 
sway  rates,  as  measured,  were  identical,  and  approximately 
twice  the  walking-rate. 

In  the  present  instance,  this  series  of  elastic  unitary 
pulses  usually  announces  its  presence  at  once  on  the  appear- 
ance of  objective  auditory  stimuli,  sufficient  in  number  to 
suggest  serial  grouping.  What  follows  is  a  slight  adjust- 
ment of  the  rate  of  the  pulses  (when  the  stimuli  are 
produced  by  another),  and  a  mutual  adjustment  of  the 
pulses  and  the  articulatory  movement  (when  the  stimuli 
are  produced  by  the  writer  himself,  as  in  reading  aloud 
the  sentence  from  Walter  Pater).  This  adjustment  occurs 
by  means  of  instinctive  processes,  and,  unless  a  repeated 
pattern  of  time  and  stress  obtrudes  itself,  results,  not  in  a 
predominance  of  coincidence,  but  rather  in  various  forms  of 
syncopating  and  substitutional  relation  such  as  appear  in 
the  course  of  regular  music  —  for  instance,  the  sonatas  of 
Beethoven,  or  the  "Scenes  from  Childhood"  by  Schumann. 

What  thus  develops  within  the  compass  of  the  first  few 
syllables  continues  throughout  the  sentence.  Suggestions, 
however,  stream  rapidly  into  consciousness  from  the  first 
grasp  of  the  meaning  and  tone-color  of  the  opening  words 
(together  with  the  perception  that  the  sentence  is  arranged 
as  prose),  which  suggestions  influence  appreciably  the  rate 
of  the  unitary  pulses,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  experimenter's 
own  reading,  the  rate  of  the  uttered  syllables,  as  well  as 
the  form  of  syncopating  adjustment.  The  instinctive 
desire  for  a  maximum  of  ease,  spontaneity  (freedom  from 
an  artificial  pattern),  and  appropriateness,  joins  these 
suggestions  derived  from  thought,  mood,  and  tone-color. 
Had  the  first  impressions  (whether  derived  from  lines  and 
stanzas  visible  to  the  reader,  or  from  evidence  of  metrical 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES  67 

pattern  in  the  rendering  of  another)  suggested  that  the 
arrangement  was  intended  as  verse,  memory  and  habit 
would  at  once  enter  as  factors  in  assisting  consciousness  to 
pounce  upon  the  pattern  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  adjust 
the  pulses  (which  would  now  be  likely  to  group  themselves 
into  two's  or  three's)  to  more  or  less  coincidence  with  the 
accents  of  the  metre.  The  reason,  however,  for  such 
adjustment  would  be  nothing  more  abstruse  than  that  it 
is  the  easiest  thing  to  do.  In  the  case  of  a  rendering  of 
verse  by  another  person,  the  pulses  would  probably  be 
suppressed,  as  soon  as  an  adjustment  between  their  rate 
and  the  rate  of  the  speaker  proved  uncomfortable.  But  in 
case  of  prose  where  patterns  do  not  obtrude,  the  elastic 
possibilities  of  acceleration,  together  with  those  of  syncopa- 
tion and  substitution,  open  loop-holes  of  escape  in  every 
direction.  Only  where  the  prose  rendering  is  obviously 
too  schematic,  rather  than  perfectly  spontaneous,  does  the 
problem  of  adjusting  the  heard  syllables  instinctively  to  the 
under-units  become  anything  but  a  refreshing  task. 

After  this  explanation,  the  following  purely  chance  type 
of  rhythmic  experience  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  in  reading 
aloud  the  sentence  of  Pater,  may  assist  in  making  plain  the 
procedure  of  a  "timer"  in  organizing  prose.  A  glance  at 
the  text  gives  the  assurance  that  the  words  are  at  least 
arranged  in  a  normal,  straightforward  fashion.  There  are 
no  inversions,  and  no  obvious  stress-pattern  presents 
itself.  "It  is  the  landscape,  not  of  dreams  or  of  fancy,"  is 
about  as  much  as  the  mind  at  first  comprehends  with 
regard  to  thought,  mood,  and  tone-color.  A  degree  of 
pensiveness  and  the  consequent  appropriateness  of  a 
moderate  tempo  suggest  themselves  at  once.  The  unitary 
pulses  of  subjective  tune  begin  to  obtrude  before  the  actual 
uttering  of  any  of  the  words  of  the  sentence.  Their  rate 
is  about  .7  sec.,  or  less,  we  shall  say,  being  quickened 
probably  by  the  consciousness  of  an  approaching  problem, 


68  THE  RHYTHM   OF  PROSE 

through  suggestions  derived  from  accelerating  heart-beats 
and  breathing,  part  of  the  phenomena  accompanying 
mental  work.  The  voice  begins,  just  after  one  of  the 
pulses  (i.e.,  syncopating),  and  utters  the  words  "It  is  the" 
during  the  unit-interval.  At  the  syllable  "land,"  the  voice 
and  the  subjective  time-beat  coincide.  The  next  pulse 
registers  its  subjective  tap,  not  on  the  accented  part  of  the 
word  "dreams"  but  on  the  humming  "m"  sound  at  the  end. 
In  this  way  "dre"  is  registered,  in  the  combined  impression, 
as  preceding  the  pulse  by  a  definitely  appreciated  time- 
interval.  The  fact,  however,  that  the  unit  pulse  falls  on 
the  "m"  sound,  in  no  way  distorts  the  usual  accentuation 
of  the  word.  This  phenomenon  is  at  once  understood  by 
every  musician.  It  is  a  simple  case  of  syncopation.  The 
fact,  in  this  particular  case,  that  the  beat  did  not  coincide 
with  "dre"  is  due,  apparently,  to  some  suggestion  in  the 
context  or  perhaps  merely  to  some  spontaneous  articulatory 
tendency,  which  hurried  the  enunciation  of  the  word. 
The  satisfying  effect  of  such  syncopation,  when  once 
recognized,  is  nothing  more  occult  than  what  occurs  in 
every  bit  of  genuine  rag-time.  When  talked  about  too 
much  it  easily  assumes  the  guise  of  unpenetrable  mys- 
tery. 

In  the  same  way,  the  next  pulse  does  not  coincide  with 
the  orally  accented  part  of  "fancy"  but  falls  upon  the  last 
syllable  —  another  case  of  syncopation  due  to  an  uncon- 
strained rendering.  In  the  case  of  a  person's  not  making 
these  temporal  correlations  easily  and  spontaneously,  a 
forced  attempt  to  "beat  time"  would  undoubtedly  lead, 
unless  otherwise  directed,  to  a  deliberate  hurrying  or  slowing 
up  of  words  in  order  to  form  coincidences  with  the  accom- 
panying units.  This  is  a  complete  negation  of  the  spirit  of 
prose,  and  even  in  verse  produces  mechanical  renderings, 
when  the  unit-series  itself  is  maintained  without  a  certain 
free  play  of  elasticity  (accelerando  and  ritardando') ,  and 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES  69 

without  a  definite,  though  subordinated,  amount  of  synco- 
pation. 

The  combined  rhythmical  experience  of  the  syllabic 
impressions  and  the  under-units  of  time,  in  the  present 
instance,  is  as  follows : 

"It  is  the  landscape,  not  of  dreams  or  of  fancy,  but  of 
#  *  *  * 

places  far  withdrawn,  and  hours  selected  from  a  thousand 
*  *  *  * 

with  a  miracle  of  finesse." 
*  * 

We  shall  call  this,  "rhythmic  experience  x."  The  rela- 
tive occurrence  of  unitary  pulses  is  indicated  by  asterisks 
placed  just  underneath  the  sounds  or  pauses  which  they 
accompany.  Reproduce  by  tapping  off  the  pulses  at  approxi- 
mately equal  intervals,  taking  care  that  the  predominantly 
syncopating  relation  between  the  pulses  and  the  chief  accents 
of  the  text  is  preserved. 

f~~  The  impression  which  results  from  the  combination  in 
consciousness  of  the  auditory  (syllabic)  sensations  (includ- 
ing their  effect  upon  attention)  and  the  subjective  time-units, 
may  be  compared  to  a  melody  and  its  accompaniment, 
with  attention  focussed,  not  upon  the  pitch  relations  so 
much  as  upon  the  relations  of  time  and  stress.  This  is 
what  occurs  when  the  rhythm  of  a  melody  is  tapped  upon  a 
drum.  "Drum-beat  tunes"  and  "rhythmic  tunes"  are 
merely  phrases,  no  doubt  quite  old,  for  such  a  performance. 
"Tune"  in  both  cases  not  only  suggests  an  auditory 
sequence,  temporally  and  accentually  organized,  but  brings 
to  mind  two  interesting  facts  —  first,  that  even  in  a  succes- 
sion of  noises,  impressions  of  definite  pitch  are  likely  to 
occur;  second,  that  even  in  a  succession  of  notes  of  unvary- 
ing pitch,  fictitious  melodies,  of  definite  tonal  structure,  are 
easily  added  subjectively  by  some  observers. 

The  drum-beat  tune,  in  its  function  of  assistance  in 
organizing  irregular  sequences,  must  be  kept  exactly  where 
it  belongs  —  as  a  step  of  great  importance,  but,  after  all, 


70  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

nothing  more  than  a  step.  The  final  impression  of  rhythm 
derived  from  a  sentence  is,  to  a  large  extent,  a  fusion  of 
elements,  in  which  actual  pitch,  tone-color,  thought,  mood, 
capricious  or  logical  attention,  etc.,  enter  as  factors  in 
addition  to  duration,  stress,  and  the  dim  element  of  pitch, 
actual  or  purely  subjective,  implicated  in  the  drum-beat 
tune.  Of  course,  one  of  the  chief  virtues  of  objectively 
tapping  a  drum-beat  tune,  or  of  reproducing  in  some 
outward  motor  form  the  series  of  subjective  units,  is  that 
the  overt  motor  performance  is  a  help  to  confirming  and 
defining  the  rhythmic  experience. 

Reverting  to  the  sentence  from  Pater,  and  the  particular 
rhythmic  experience  which  is  being  discussed  (rhythmic 
experience  x),  we  should  state  that  the  series  of  under- 
units,  spontaneously  evoked  at  the  first  signal  for  the 
mental  and  motor  task  of  reading  the  sentence  aloud,  loses 
its  obtrusiveness  very  quickly,  so  that  the  result,  segregated 
as  a  rhythmic  experience  (apart  from  the  mere  understand- 
ing and  enjoyment  of  the  meaning  of  the  sentence)  can  be 
described  only  by  some  such  phrase  as  the  "rhythmic 
tune"  of  the  rendering.  This  implies  more  or  less  of  a 
fusion  of  the  two  elements  furnished  by  the  motor  and 
auditory  sensations  connected  with  the  words,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  pulses  of  subjective  time  on  the  other.  It  is 
just  what  happens  when  we  whistle  a  melody,  keeping 
satisfactory  time  (largely  by  means  of  automatic  processes) 
without  realizing  the  system  of  units  we  happen  to  be  using. 

The  particular  "tune"  attained  by  rhythmic  experience 
x  could  be  roughly  written  in  musical  notation  with  two 
staves:  one  for  the  "melody,"  or  series  of  beats  (subjective 
impressions  of  syllables),  accented  in  various  ways,  pro- 
duced by  the  actual  words;  the  other  for  the  accompani- 
ment, or  series  of  unitary  pulses.  The  only  chance  for 
misunderstanding  would  be  over  the  matter  of  spontaneous 
substitution,  which  enters  into  every  step  of  the  progres- 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES  71 

sion.  If  this  is  once  understood,  syncopation  (which  may 
be  regarded  as  an  aspect  of  substitution)  presents  no  great 
difficulties.  Spontaneous  substitution,  as  explained  before, 
means  here  simply:  first,  that  when  two  sets  of  time- 
intervals  are  occurring  concomitantly,  one  a  unit-series  and 
the  other  a  more  complicated  arrangement  (to  be  coordi- 
nated with  these  units  and  then  organized),  the  unit- 
intervals,  in  their  successive  occurrence,  establish  the 
fundamental  continuous  experience  of  rhythm;  second, 
that  this  experience  is  not  disturbed,  but  rather  made  more 
interesting  by  the  fact  that  any  one  of  the  units  can  be 
accompanied  by  two,  three,  four,  etc.  subdivisions  of  a 
unit-interval,  produced  by  the  beats  of  the  more  com- 
plicated series. 

If  the  series  of  elastic  unitary  pulses  is  thus  conceived  as 
an  ungrouped  succession  of  "boom's,"  the  objective,  more 
complicated  series  may  be  conceived  at  first  as  a  haphazard 
arrangement  of  "bim's."  Coordination  is  accomplished  by 
means  of  the  principle  of  spontaneous  substitution,  in 
which  case  the  unit  series  continues  as  "boom!  boom! 
boom!",  while  the  objective  series  is  felt  to  consist  of 
substitutions  (without  premeditated  pattern)  of  two 
"bim's,"  three  "bim's,"  etc.,  to  a  single  "boom."  So, 
also,  one  "bim"  may  be  prolonged  sufficiently  to  cover  the 
time  occupied  by  several  "boom's."  When  to  these 
possibilities  we  add  the  possibility  of  suppressing  any 
number  of  "bim's"  in  a  group,  let  us  say  of  three  or  five, 
and  instituting  in  its  place  some  subjective  point  of  tension, 
marked  by  kinaesthesis  or  imagery,  we  have  introduced  the 
principle  of  syncopation.  By  substitution  a  "boom"  is 
first  accompanied,  let  us  assume,  by  three  "bim's";  by 
another  form  of  substitution,  which  we  call  syncopation, 
the  first  and  second  "bim's"  are  suppressed,  and  subjective 
points  of  tension  "felt"  in  their  place.  A  silence  thus 
accompanies  the  beginning  of  the  "boom,"  but  two  thirds 


72  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

of  the  way  across  the  interval  a  short  "him"  sounds. 
To  a  mind  to  which  syncopation  is  an  easy  task,  the 
occurrence  of  a  "him"  four  fifths  of  the  way  across  a  unit- 
interval  at  once  evokes  an  illusion  of  the  interval's  having 
been  divided  from  the  beginning  into  five.  By  this  is 
meant,  not  that  the  number  five  comes  actually  into  con- 
sciousness, but  that  there  is  instituted  (for  how  long  it  is 
impossible  to  say)  a  second  temporary  series,  of  small 
pulses,  each  equal  to  the  short  interval  just  perceived. 
At  every  new  substitution  of  three's,  four's,  etc.,  or  the 
suggestion  of  such  substitution  by  the  sudden  introduction 
of  an  interval  shorter  than  the  fundamental  "boom,"  the 
mental  processes  instinctively  readjust  themselves  to  the 
momentary  form  of  coordination,  without  losing  the  uni- 
fying influence  of  the  basic  "boom's."  It  is  a  signal 
case  of  unity  regulating  multiplicity.  The  current  belief 
that  prose  rhythm  has  no  rule  but  variety  is  thus  shown  to 
be  unfounded  so  far  as  rhythmic  experience  x  is  concerned. 
Any  one  who  wishes  to  see  the  principles  above  described 
strikingly  applied  in  terms  of  the  notation  of  regular  music, 
should  examine  the  first  page  of  "The  Temple  of  Mem- 
phis," composed  for  the  piano  by  Cyril  Scott.  The  passage 
containing  the  most  noticeable  series  of  unitary  pulses  in 
the  bass,  accompanied  by  the  spontaneous  substitution  of 
two's,  three's,  etc.,  in  the  treble,  begins  with  the  fifth  bar. 
Broader  groupings  of  the  unitary  pulses  into  clusters  of 
three,  five,  four,  three,  are  indicated  lower  down  on  the 
page  by  the  figures  at  the  beginning  of  each  bar.  The 
recent  recitals  of  East  Indian  music  given  in  New  York  by 
Ratan  Devi  furnish  signal  examples  of  objective  unitary 
pulses,  played  as  an  instrumental  accompaniment  to  the 
syncopating  words  of  the  songs.  But,  for  that  matter,  the 
"Scenes  from  Childhood"  by  Schumann,  in  which  such 
familiar  melodies  as  "Traumerei"  occur,  contain  excellent 
examples. 


RHYTHMIC  TUNES  73 

The  testimony  of  the  data  recorded  in  Appendix  III, 
section  xxxiv,  leaves  little  doubt  that  rhythmic  experience 
x,  in  so  far  as  it  is  based  upon  unitary  pulses,  syncopation 
and  substitution,  is  the  sort  of  experience  felt  by  Observer 
No.  7  (see  Appendix  III,  section  xxvii)  when  he  subjectively 
organized  all  five  of  the  phonograph  records  and  pro- 
nounced them  regular  music.  It  would  be  a  mistake  of 
the  gravest  nature  to  confuse  rhythmic  experience  x,  based 
upon  unitary  pulses,  with  the  type  of  musical  experience 
resulting  from  the  hearing  of  a  Strauss  waltz.  But  it 
would  be  very  difficult  to  distinguish  the  sort  of  rhythmic 
tune  it  suggests  (when  this  is  quite  divorced  of  voice-pitch, 
tone-color,  thought,  mood,  etc.)  from  a  similar  rhythmic 
tune  obtained  from  a  rendering  of  such  music  as  Cyril 
Scott's,  or  from  Ratan  Devi's  singing,  or  from  so  thoroughly 
beloved  a  melody  as  "Traumerei." 

Any  objections  to  the  use  of  Cyril  Scott's  music,  as 
probably  unpleasing  in  its  rhythm,  are  completely  nullified 
by  the  data  recorded  in  Appendix  III,  section  xxxi,  where 
eight  out  of  the  twelve  observers,  although  in  some  cases 
puzzled  by  the  first  hearing  of  the  rhythmic  tune  as  beaten 
on  the  drum,  reported  interest  and  pleasure  on  the  second 
hearing.  Their  possible  experience  with  regard  to  the 
melody  and  harmony  of  this  music  would  be  quite  another 
point.  Its  rhythmic  suggestions,  however,  contain  enough 
of  primeval  tom-tom  hypnotism  to  appeal  even  to  those 
of  us  who  are  still  savages.  The  same  is  true  of  the  sen- 
tence of  Walter  Pater,  regardless  of  the  rather  sophisticated 
rustle  underneath  which  its  beats  are  veiled. 


CHAPTER  V 

VERS  LIBRE 

SINCE  the  distinction  between  prose  and  verse  experience 
is  of  vital  significance  in  the  present  investigation,  certain 
claims  must  be  considered,  which  have  been  advanced  by 
the  writers  of  vers  libre,  some  of  whom  imply  that  what 
they  write  is  merely  an  amplified,  "freer"  kind  of  verse, 
others  that  they  are  expressing  themselves  through  a 
distinctive  medium,  which  is  neither  prose  nor  verse,  in 
the  old  acceptation  of  the  term.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  the  "timer,"  who  can  be  brought  to  a  clear  realization 
of  the  difference  between  typical  prose  and  verse  experience, 
and  who,  consequently,  need  not  feel  any  undue  terrors 
with  regard  to  the  supposed  "  elusiveness "  of  the  problem, 
these  claims  of  the  writers  of  vers  libre  are  easily  examined. 
There  is  no  reason  why  a  picture  of  the  situation  should  not 
be  painted  in  black  and  white. 

Once  more  we  must  focus  our  attention,  not  upon  paper 
theories,  but  upon  actual  experiment.  From  this  point  of 
view,  typical  prose  is  uttered  language  which,  on  a  given 
occasion,  produces  a  series  of  syllabic  impressions,  whose 
temporal  arrangement  is  largely  irregular,  that  is,  hap- 
hazard, but  which  can  be  subjectively  organized  by  an 
aggressive  "timer."  A  spontaneous  or  automatic  process 
of  syncopation  between  the  syllabic  sounds  and  subjective 
unitary  pulses  secures  satisfactory  coordination,  in  the  same 
way  that  a  negro  automatically  improvises  complicated  syn- 
copating melodies  while  he  plies  his  hoe  in  the  corn-field.1 

1  The  definition  of  prose  as  distinguished  from  verse  experience, 
for  a  timer,  depends  upon  a  predominance  of  syncopation  over  coin- 
cidence in  the  coordination  of  the  accented  syllables  of  the  text  with 
the  measuring  pulses.  See  the  following  paragraph. 

74 


VERS  LIBRE  75 

Felicity  of  phrase  and  vividness  of  imagery,  which  give 
emotional  value  to  a  poem  through  a  complex  of  suggestions 
and  associations,  must  be  removed  from  the  discussion 
except  in  so  far  as  they  involve  time-patterns  and  stress- 
patterns,  the  two  factors  which  most  immediately  con- 
cern us.  Taking  well-defined  prose  experience  to  be  due 
to  a  predominance  of  syncopation  in  the  relation  between  a 
"timer's"  elastic  measuring  pulses  and  the  syllables  in 
which  we  feel  impressions  of  accent,  and  regarding  verse 
experience  as  due  to  a  predominance  of  coincidence  in  this 
relation,  we  first  of  all  conceive  the  rhythm  of  either  prose 
or  verse  in  the  form  of  a  rhythmic  tune,  combining  patterns 
of  time,  stress,  and,  to  some  extent,  pitch.  Patterns  of 
tone-color  are  superimposed,  as  soon  as  we  consider  the 
actual  sounds  of  the  words,  and  patterns  of  subjective 
weight,  as  soon  as  we  consider  the  words  as  vehicles  of 
thought  and  feeling,  in  addition  to  their  auditory  impression. 

Patterns,  not  of  stress  as  actually  uttered,  but  as  in- 
dicated by  grammatical  (dictionary)  accent,  have  a  great 
influence  upon  the  person  who  utters  a  printed  passage,  in 
suggesting  to  him  whether  to  speak  the  words  as  prose  or 
verse.  Here  is  where  the  absence  of  a  series  of  similar 
grammatical  stress-patterns  is  of  importance  in  instituting 
the  typical  prose  attitude.  When  once  this  prose  attitude 
is  instituted,  it  is  quite  evident  in  the  delivery  of  a  "timer" 
that  he  is  uttering  his  accented  syllables  in  a  comfortably 
irregular  fashion  —  comfortably,  because  his  ability  to 
organize  subjectively  such  irregularities  completes  for  him, 
by  means  of  syncopation,  the  easiest  rhythmic  experience 
that  can  be  evoked  by  such  conditions.  If,  however,  the 
grammatical  stresses,  as  noticed  in  the  particular  text, 
arrange  themselves  obviously  in  a  repeated  pattern,  he 
receives  his  cue  therefrom,  and  utters  the  passage  in 
question  in  harmony  with  his  instinctive  feeling  that  the 
predominating  coincidence  between  accents  and  tinie-pulses 


76  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

is  the  easiest  process  whenever  a  sequence  of  some  one 
stress-pattern  is  involved.  Thus,  both  in  the  case  of  prose 
and  verse,  he  follows  automatically  the  line  of  least  resistance. 
So  much  for  the  person  who  reads  aloud  from  a  printed 
text.  The  hearer,  on  the  other  hand,  receives  his  sugges- 
tions no  longer  from  mere  dictionary  accent,  which  is 
easily  obliterated  in  rapid  delivery,  but  from  the  particular 
rendering  of  the  one  who  utters  the  words.  If  he  detects 
in  this  rendering  a  sequence  of  some  actual  stress-pattern 
matched  by  evident  ease  in  adapting  his  inner  pulses  to  the 
accents  in  a  form  of  coordination  in  which  coincidence  pre- 
dominates, he,  too,  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and 
considers  the  words  he  hears  to  be  verse.  Naturally  he 
does  not  bother  his  mind  as  to  how  he  enjoys  it,  provided 
he  actually  does  enjoy  it.  If  either  the  hearer  or  the  one 
who  is  reading  aloud  is  enjoying  a  passage  in  the  typical 
temporal  attitude  associated  with  prose  and  suddenly  be- 
gins to  feel  pulling  at  his  elbow  hints  of  repeated  patterns, 
whose  regular  sequence  makes  coincidence  the  easiest  form 
of  coordination,  he  may  find  himself  out  of  the  formal 
sphere  of  prose  and,  momentarily,  at  least,  in  that  of  verse. 
Whether  he  enjoys  this  shift  or  not  is  a  matter  of  individual 
difference.  There  are  some  who  resent  it  bitterly,  just  as 
there  are  others  who  may  aver  that  they  enjoy  such  chang- 
ing back  and  forth. 

One  continuous  text,  then,  may  lead  to  the  two  types  of 
experience,  and  passages  may  easily  occur  in  which  the 
suggestions  of  pattern  may  be  balanced  by  suggestions  of 
the  absence  of  pattern.  One  person,  too,  might  interpret 
the  passage  as  verse-like,  another  as  quite  the  opposite. 
Right  here  is  where  the  chance  for  a  tremendous  fallacy 
occurs.  The  confused  state  of  mind  with  regard  to  the 
general  trend  of  the  movement,  that  is,  as  to  whether  it  is 
prose  or  verse,  must  not  lead  us  into  concluding  that  a 
distinct  aesthetic  experience  has  been  produced  essentially 


VERS  LIBRE  77 

different  from  that  of  prose  or  of  regular  verse.  There  are 
only  two  ways  in  which  a  series  of  measuring  time-units 
can  be  coordinated  with  a  second  series  of  sensations  — 
syncopation  and  coincidence.  Either  syncopation  pre- 
dominates, in  which  instance  we  feel  the  stimulus  as  prose, 
or  coincidence  predominates,  and  verse  experience  ensues. 
What  room  is  there  for  a  tertium  quid?  Nothing  remains 
but  the  purely  hypothetical  case  where  syncopation  and 
coincidence  are  exactly  balanced  in  their  occurrence,  or 
else  a  mere  confusion  of  mind  in  which  temporal  coordina- 
tion practically  ceases,  that  is,  in  which  rhythm,  so  far  as 
the  "tuner"  is  concerned,  has  been  abrogated.  Wallin's 
experiments  at  Yale  have  shown  how  easily  passages  of 
verse,  such  as  that  of  Tennyson  or  Browning,  might  be 
read  as  prose  if  so  arranged.  But  there  exists  no  actual 
arrangement  of  lines  or  of  stress-groups  in  the  words 
themselves  which  is  capable  of  leading  us  invariably  into  a 
perfect  balance  between  syncopation  and  coincidence. 
Accordingly,  there  exists  no  fundamental  time-rhythm  experi- 
ence corresponding  to  a  tertium  quid  between  prose  and 
regular  verse.  What  actually  happens  in  the  hearing  or 
utterance  either  of  vers  libre  or  of  certain  forms  of  so-called 
"rhythmic  prose"  is  that  during  one  phrase  or  group  of 
phrases  the  aggressive  "timer"  feels  syncopating  temporal 
experiences,  during  the  next  phrase  or  group  he  begins  to 
feel  coincidence  of  the  accents  with  his  subjective  measuring 
pulses.  The  more  vague  impressions  of  the  "stresser"  are 
significant  in  the  study  of  individual  difference,  but  hardly 
illuminating  with  regard  to  the  distinctive  experience  of 
rhythm  because  of  his  overly  blurred  sense  of  time-values. 
According  to  the  results  of  our  experiments,  therefore, 
there  is  no  psychological  meaning  to  the  claims  for  a  third 
genre  between  regular  verse  and  prose,  except  in  the  sense 
of  a  jumping  back  and  forth  from  one  side  of  the  fence  to 
the  other.  In  spite  of  the  fact,  then,  that  many  passages 


78  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

can  be  felt  as  either  prose  or  verse,  according  to  the  utter- 
ance or  the  amount  of  "suggestion"  received  through 
visual  arrangement,  grammatical  (dictionary)  accent,  arti- 
fices of  tone-color,  figures  of  speech,  elevated  diction,  etc., 
nothing  more  than  an  unstable  compound  can  be  created 
out  of  the  two  typical  forms  of  temporal  experience. 

So  far  as  broader  grouping  is  concerned,  prose  is  capable 
of  all  the  subtleties  of  occult  balance  ever  evinced  in 
verse.2  If  the  champions  of  vers  libre  were  to  stick  to  an 
obvious  balance  in  broader  groupings,  with  an  avoidance  of 
any  regular  succession  of  small  group-patterns,  such  as 
iambs,  trochees,  anapaests,  etc.,  they  would  have  a  more 
consistent  form,  similar,  as  a  whole,  to  neither  regular 
prose  nor  regular  verse.  It  would  produce  symmetrically 
arranged  stretches  of  prose  experience,  in  which  free 
syncopation,  however,  would  probably  be  checked  to  a 
large  extent  by  the  suggested  see-saw  of  broader  arrange- 
ment. Such  a  form  exists  in  some  of  the  Psalm  transla- 
tions. The  writers  of  vers  libre,  however,  appear  to  have 
no  intention  of  thus  curbing  their  freedom.  So,  of  course 
the  constant  jerking  back  and  forth  from  prose  to  verse 
may  continue  to  produce  pleasurable  reactions  in  enough 
individuals  to  confirm  the  operation  as  a  fairly  usual, 
though  surprising,  combination  of  mental  processes.  All 
that  psychology  has  a  right  to  question  is  the  distinctive 
unified  reaction  claimed  for  what  is  really  an  alternation 
of  two  contrasting  forms  of  experience. 

Irregular  length  of  line  and  the  absence  of  rhyme  have 
always  been  features  of  certain  types  of  verse,  avoided 
by  some  poets,  cultivated  by  others.  Particularly  with 

1  This  secondary  grouping  may  be  symmetrical  or  unsymmetrical. 
Either  verse  or  prose  experience  may  thus  be  colored  by  the  form  of 
grouping  superimposed.  Verse  experience,  unsymmetrically  grouped, 
and  prose  experience,  symmetrically  grouped,  would  be  the  more 
unusual  and,  without  doubt,  the  more  unstable  varieties. 


VERS  LIBRE  79 

respect  to  irregular  length  of  line,  whether  measured  by 
stress-patterns  of  grammatical  accent  or  merely  by  number 
of  chief  accents,  there  will  continue  to  be  chances  for  more 
and  more  "freedom"  until  the  mathematical  limit  of 
permutation  and  combination  for  unusually  long  and  unu- 
sually short  lines  has  been  reached.  The  idea,  therefore, 
that  certain  individual  forms  of  vers  libre  are  merely 
amplifications  of  accepted  types  of  conventional  verse  is 
thoroughly  justified.  But  quite  apart  from  irregular  length 
of  line,  the  arrangement  of  grammatical  accent  in  the 
printed  text  of  the  poems  of  Masters,  for  instance,  produces 
frequently,  by  the  force  of  suggestion,  an  assortment  of 
thoroughly  good  prose  experiences  sandwiched  in  between 
patches  of  equally  good  verse.  This  is  hardly  a  mere 
amplification  of  accepted  types  of  verse,  since  the  broader 
interchange  between  verse  and  prose  to  be  found  in  Shake- 
speare and  the  Elizabethan  drama  is  frankly  according  to 
the  facts  a  matter  not  of  some  new  verse  form,  but  a 
confessed  mosaic  of  verse  and  prose.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  masquerading  of  prose  plus 
verse  under  the  name  of  either  experience  is  far  older  than 
the  nineteenth  century.  In  fact,  it  has  its  counterpart  in 
Sanskrit  forms.  The  Sanskrit  rhetoricians  are  quite  unable 
to  straighten  out  for  us  a  final  classification  of  certain 
examples  in  the  "Gadya"  style,  where  the  "perfume  of 
metre"  is  supposed  to  be  attained  without  its  presence,  in 
spite  of  which  theoretical  restriction  the  actual  metrical 
"pada's"  are  repeatedly  interpolated.3 

Even  in  its  most  recent  developments,  particularly  in 
France,  the  mosaic  form  has  appeared  sometimes  under  the 
name  of  prose,  sometimes  under  that  of  verse.  In  either 
case,  it  must  be  recognized  that  whenever  so-called  vers 
libre  goes  beyond  mere  irregularity  of  length  of  line,  and 
alternates  successions  of  repeated  stress-patterns  with 

1  Regnaud,  P.,  La  Rhttorique  sanskrite,  Paris,  1884,  pp.  74  ff. 


80  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

stretches  where  the  grammatical  accent  is  sufficiently 
irregular  to  suggest  a  syncopating  rhythmic  response,  there 
results  for  the  "tuner"  a  patch-work  product,  involving  two 
processes  which  psychologically  do  not  fuse. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  say  that  the  recent  American 
poets  who  employ  "free  verse"  give  us  many  effective  and 
welcome  phrasings  of  their  realistic  view  of  life.  Their 
independence  as  to  form  is  occasionally  stimulating.  With 
regard  to  subtle  cadence,  however,  which  has  been  claimed 
as  the  chief  distinction  of  these  poets,  it  is  still  a  question 
as  to  how  far  they  have  surpassed  the  refinement  of  balance 
that  quickens  the  prose  of  Walter  Pater. 

A  word,  finally,  must  be  added  as  to  terminology.  When 
regular  prose  becomes  consistently  emotional,  whether 
through  richness  of  tone-color,  abundance  of  images,  or 
conspicuous  "return"  of  certain  prose  refrains,  such  as  we 
find  in  Matthew  Arnold's  repetition  of  "sweetness  and 
light"  or  De  Quincey's  "Fanny  and  the  rose  in  June,"  all 
we  need  is  to  space  the  phrases  on  separate  lines  in  order  to 
obtain  something  which  is  not  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
best  "free  verse."  This  resulting  experience  is  different 
from  that  obtained  from  ordinary  prose  in  that  the  spacing 
serves  to  focus  our  attention  upon  the  rhythm  as  rhythm] 4 
but,  in  spite  of  this  self-consciousness  and  its  emotional 
consequences,  our  "glorified"  prose  still  remains  a  kind  of 
prose.  What  shall  we  call  it?  Since  all  prose  has  its  rhyth- 
mic possibilities,  "rhythmic  prose"  is  as  misleading  a  name 
as  vers  libre.  Rhythmically  self-conscious  "spaced  prose" 
is  an  uninviting  but  fairly  accurate  description  of  it  in  its 
more  inspired  manifestations,  such  as  abound  in  the  work 
of  Miss  Amy  Lowell.  Nevertheless,  until  the  various  expo- 
nents of  vers  libre  strike  Miss  Lowell's  more  consistent  pace, 
it  is  useless  to  devise  names  for  what,  at  present,  seems  to 
be  a  shifting  entity. 

4  Rhythm  in  the  sense  of  "secondary,  broader  rhythm."    See  p.  98. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONCLUSION 

THERE  is  little  that  is  permanently  elusive  about  the 
rhythm  of  prose  to  an  aggressively  rhythmic  person.  The 
temporal  part  of  his  experience,  at  any  rate,  is  clear-cut 
enough  for  musical  transcription,  provided  we  adopt  a 
system  of  accelerating  and  retarding  unitary  pulses  as  a 
basis,  and  understand  the  phenomena  of  syncopation  and 
spontaneous  substitution.  To  a  passively  rhythmic  person, 
however,  whose  time-sense  is  noticeably  deficient,  prose 
rhythm,  as  an  experience,  will  never  possess  anything  but 
an  elusive  aspect.  The  subtle  pleasure  he  may  elicit  from 
a  careful  choice  of  words  with  regard  to  tone-color,  shades 
of  mood  and  thought,  etc.,  can  easily  deceive  him  into 
calling  his  experience  "rhythmic,"  when  actually  it  is 
something  else.  The  "stresser"  imagines  that  he  can 
correctly  gauge  a  "movement"  when  he  is  merely  gauging 
a  permutation  or  combination  of  stresses  and  unstressed 
syllables.  The  so-called  "word  painter"  mistakes  for 
rhythmic  sense  his  skill  in  vowel  and  consonant  color;  the 
"phraser,"  his  gift  in  balancing  against  each  other  colloca- 
tions of  words,  in  which  association  of  thought  is  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic.  Such  a  "phraser"  may  have 
skill  in  duplicating  the  style  of  some  well-known  prose 
author,  including,  inadvertently,  the  possibilities  of  rhythm; 
and  yet  in  so  doing,  he  may  have  made  use  of  processes 
quite  distinct  from  those  primarily  connected  with  rhythmic 
experience.  It  would  be  absurd  to  maintain  that  without 
a  discriminative  sense  of  time  there  can  be  any  real  valua- 
tion of  movement. 

81 


82  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

Many  of  the  stresser's  errors  are  avoided  if  we  keep 
before  our  minds  the  difference  between  body-rhythm  and 
static  body-balance.    The  schoolboy,  standing  erect  with 
heels    together,    ready    for    calisthenic    drill,    exemplifies 
symmetrical    body-balance.    The    Indian,    poised    for    an 
instant  upon  one  foot,  as  he  climbs  the  rocks,  illustrates 
the  balance  of  an  apparently  unsymmetrical  or  "occult" 
nature.1    But  let  the  schoolboy  begin  to  move  his  arms  in 
time  to  music,  his  motions  coinciding  with  the  temporal 
pulses  of  a  tune,  and  rhythmic  experience  results,  similar 
to  that  which  we  associate  with  verse.     So  let  the  Indian 
resume  his  actual  climbing  of  the  rocks,  and  the  coordinated 
movements  he  makes,   although  occurring  at  objectively 
irregular  intervals,  are  subjectively  organized  by  an  aggres- 
sively rhythmic  spectator  as  a  sort  of  prose  tune,  in  which 
the  accents  in  the  movement  predominantly  syncopate  with 
the  elastic  subjective  temporal   pulses  of  the  onlooker,  if 
he  be  a  "timer."    When   the   schoolboy  and  the  Indian 
move  progressively  the  phenomena  of  body-rhythm  become 
evident,  in  addition  to  body-balance,  which,  of  course,  still 
operates.    The    "stresser,"  the  "word   painter,"  and  the 
"phraser"  are  often  capable  of  the  most  subtle  appreciation 
of  static  body-balance  in  a  sentence,  and  are  always  aware, 
to   a   certain   extent,    of   the   temporal   quality   of   body- 
rhythm;  but  they  cannot  easily  evoke  a  scale  of  subjective 
temporal  measurement,  and,  accordingly,  their  attention, 
when  they  react  to  progressive  movement  in  language,  is 
on  the  weakness  or  strength  of  accents  and  their  merely 
numerical  recurrence,  on  the  relations  of  tone-color,  and 
the  interplay  of  thought  and  mood  associations. 

The  intellectual  act  of  balancing  the  memory  of  three 
stress  accents  in  one  phrase  against  three  such  accents  in 
another,  regardless  of  their  time  relations,  is  a  unifying 

1  Puffer,  E.,  Studies  in  symmetry,  Harv.  Psy.  St.,  I,  1903;  Gordon, 
K.,  Esthetics,  N.Y.,  1909;  etc. 


CONCLUSION  83 

process  similar  to  body-balance.  Suppose  that  the  school- 
boy lifts  his  arms  above  his  head  three  times,  regardless  of 
temporal  regularity.  Presently  let  him  lift  them  up  again 
three  times  at  irregular  intervals,  quite  different  from  those 
of  his  first  three  movements.  There  is  a  mental  satisfaction 
in  being  able  to  group  his  first  three  acts  as  a  numerical 
pattern  repeated  in  his  second  group  of  arm-liftings.  We 
enjoy  this  subjective  unification  of  the  number  of  the 
boy's  movements  in  the  way  that  we  enjoy  a  single  act  of 
body-balance.  Similarly,  we  might  enjoy  contemplating 
the  fact  that  there  are  five  fingers  on  one  hand  and  five 
on  the  other. 

Stress-patterns,  small  and  large,  from  the  balance  of 
two  iambs  to  the  balance  of  two  paragraphs,  similarly 
"grouped,"  figure  in  the  rhythmic  experience  of  every 
"timer";  but  they  are  always  superimposed  upon  time- 
patterns.  The  inveterate  "stresser,"  however,  has  a  much 
less  complete  experience,  in  that  only  one  of  the  two 
elements  is  a  distinct  factor  in  the  pleasure  he  obtains 
from  prose  and  verse.  As  to  prose,  moreover,  no  "non- 
timer"  seems  able  to  make  clear  the  nature  of  his  own 
experience.  To  say  that  it  is  due  to  a  generous  "mixture" 
of  "all  sorts  of  metres"  is  the  same  as  confessing  that  the 
experience  is  mere  hodge-podge.  Is  it  not  more  accurate 
and  sincere  for  him  to  say  that,  while  he  may  have  a 
subtle  sense  for  simple  and  occult  balance  of  stress-patterns 
in  prose,  and  possibly  a  tremendous  sense  for  tone-color 
and  the  artistic  adjustment  of  thought  and  mood  associa- 
tion, nevertheless  his  sense  of  time  is  not  sufficiently  keen 
for  him  to  organize  objectively  irregular  series  of  sounds 
such  as  he  confesses,  by  his  term  "mixture  of  all  sorts  of 
metres,"  are  typical  of  prose?  Such  an  admission  is  likely 
to  be  followed  by  a  realization  that  one's  sense  of  time  can 
be  sharpened  by  practice,  and  that  the  enrichment  and 
completion  of  the  rhythmic  experience  is  worth  an  effort 


84  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

in  this  direction.  Our  loss  of  time-sense  is  largely  due  to 
our  conventionally  passive  enjoyment  of  rhythm,  so  that 
the  deliberate  practice  in  tapping  schemes  of  syncopation, 
together  with  attempts  to  tap  the  rhythmic  tunes  of  prose, 
is  a  ready  means  of  leading  us  back  to  the  sharpness  of 
temporal  sense  no  doubt  possessed  by  our  primitive  an- 
cestors. 

The  aggressive  "timer,"  of  course,  gets  his  keenest 
delight  from  prose  in  the  fact  that  he  feels  no  trammels. 
His  instinctive  processes  revel  in  the  unlimited  freedom 
assured  by  the  possibilities  of  elastic  pulses  and  automatic 
syncopation.  The  pulses  dance  along  of  their  own  accord, 
falling  in  with  the  movement  of  the  prose  syllables  and 
creating  by  their  predominant  syncopation  a  rhythmic  tune, 
which  is  enriched  by  the  texture  of  stress-patterns,  pitch- 
patterns,  tone-color-patterns,  balances  of  thought  and 
mood,  etc.,  up  to  the  full  experience  of  literary  enjoyment. 
The  typical  "stresser"  or  deficient  "timer,"  may  feel  that 
he  gets  just  as  much  pleasure  from  his  time-blurred  group- 
ings, especially  since  he  may  exceed  the  "tuner"  in  his 
susceptibility  to  some  of  the  other  factors  in  prose  style 
besides  duration.  But  the  aggressively  rhythmic  "timer" 
excels  in  a  majority  of  the  factors  mentioned  above,  and, 
most  interesting  of  all,  can  be  brought  to  a  fairly  clear 
description  of  his  experience.  If  he  adds  to  his  easy  and 
spontaneous  coordination  of  haphazard  sounds  and  his 
instinctive  sense  of  swing,  a  subtle  ability  to  judge  the 
fitness  of  rhythmic  movement  to  the  underlying  thought 
and  mood  of  a  prose  passage,  he  superimposes  upon  what 
might  be  considered  a  purely  musical  endowment  a  defi- 
nitely literary  gift. 

One  chief  reason  for  rebelling  against  the  two-beat 
theory  advanced  by  Sievers  as  an  explanation  for  Old 
English  verse,  is  that  its  application  forces  upon  our  ancient 
bards  the  limitations  of  defective  tune-sense.  As  already 


CONCLUSION  85 

explained  in  Chapter  II,  Sievers  and  Schipper  define 
rhythm  from  the  point  of  view  of  "timers,"  but  apply  it  in 
the  two-beat  theory  from  the  point  of  view  of  "  stressers." 
The  contradiction  in  this  attitude  is  quite  flat.  Schipper  2 
defines  poetical  rhythm  as  "a  succession  of  syllables  so 
arranged  as  to  be  uttered  in  divisions  of  time  which  are 
symmetrical  in  their  relation  to  one  another."  Nothing 
could  be  more  definite,  more  exactly  in  line  with  the 
experience  of  a  "timer."  Similarly,  Sievers  declares,  in  no 
uncertain  terms,8  that  "by  far  the  most  important  among 
these  factors  (in  rhythm)  are  the  first  two  named:  time- 
organization  and  stress-gradation."  In  the  face  of  all 
this,  the  two-beat  theory  is  erected  on  the  confessed 
assumption  that  the  Old  English  bards  delivered  their 
hemistichs  according  to  the  manner  of  "free  recitation."4 
In  other  words,  they  did  not  utter  their  verse  "in  divisions 
of  time  which  are  symmetrical  in  their  relation  to  one 
another,"  nor  was  "time-organization"  one  of  the  "by 
far"  .  .  .  "most  important"  factors.  All  that  is  impor- 
tant, according  to  Sievers  and  Schipper,  is  the  fact  that 
two  syllables  were  stressed  in  each  half  line.  Either  the 
two-beat  theory  is  in  need  of  repair,  or  Sievers  and  Schip- 
per, and  so  Westphal  and  Saran,  whose  definitions  of 
rhythm  they  virtually  adopt,  will  have  to  devise  new 
definitions  to  fit  the  theory. 

In  prose,  the  acts  of  judgment,  unifying  and  balancing 
succeeding  phrases  merely  by  recording  the  number  of 
chief  accents  in  each  phrase,  are  interwoven  with  our  pro- 
gressive rhythmic  experience.  Simple  and  occult  balance 
both  come  constantly  into  operation.  The  simple  balance 

2  Schipper,  op.  cit.,  p.  4. 

1  Sievers,  Metrische  Studien,  Kon.  sack.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  Abh.  phil.- 
hist.  KL,  XXI,  p.  31. 

4  Sievers,  Altgermanische  Metrik,  Halle,  1893,  p.  22:  "einen  freieren 
sprechvortrag,  nicht  gleichmassig  taktierenden." 


86  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

of  an  epigram  is  easy  to  detect.  Straightforward  increase 
or  decrease  in  the  length  of  phrases  (measured  by  accents) 
can  be  understood  by  any  one.  So  no  one  would  find 
difficulty  in  grasping  the  aesthetic  satisfaction  of  a  single 
short  phrase  or  sentence  after  many  long  ones,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  this  latter  form  of  balance  is  usually  termed 
"occult." 

The  constant  operation  of  hidden  symmetry,  of  course, 
includes  some  effects  which  are  lost  upon  the  average 
reader  or  hearer.  Yet  they  are  based  upon  easily  ex- 
plained principles.  It  is  chiefly  a  matter  of  attention, 
voluntary  and  involuntary.  Invitations  to  attention,  due 
to  different  sources,  can  accumulate  upon  a  single  syllable. 
In  the  language  of  everyday  life:  a  woman  passes  by 
wearing  white  gaiters;  we  find  ourselves  giving  more  units 
of  attention  to  her  feet  than  to  her  face  and  figure. 
Applied  to  prose,  one  word  or  phrase  can  elicit  from  us 
enough  attention  to  balance  it  evenly  or  more  than  evenly 
against  a  paragraph.  The  needle  which  pricks  us  unex- 
pectedly makes  us  forget  the  haystack  in  which  it  was 
hidden.  The  invitations  to  attention  felt  in  a  phrase  may 
be  of  the  most  varied  nature:  sensations  and  associations 
due  to  time,  pitch,  and  stress-patterns,  interacting  with 
tone-color;  suggestions  due  to  striking  contrasts  in  mood  or 
thought;  emphasis  resulting  from  mere  position  at  the 
beginning  or  end  of  a  sequence,  or,  possibly,  from  some 
individual  caprice.  The  less  subtle  person  may  say  to 
himself  simply:  "This  phrase  is  quite  short;  the  rest  of 
the  sentence  is  much  longer.  I  enjoy  the  contrast."  In 
this  case  his  enjoyment  of  the  contrast  gives  him  the 
equipoise  which  we  assume  to  be  requisite  to  the  comfort  of 
an  erect  mind. 

It  would  be  ridiculous,  however,  to  pretend  that  every 
mind  progresses  to  such  a  tune  of  constant  balancings. 
The  naked  Hopi  Indian,  climbing  over  the  rocks  to  his 


CONCLUSION  87 

cliff-house,  moves  with  all  the  inevitable  grace  of  a  parab- 
ola, although  the  equations  of  his  motion  are  as  com- 
plicated as  that  of  the  parabola  is  simple.  A  city-bred 
man  would  probably  cover  the  same  ground  with  a  com- 
bination of  scrambling  and  stumbling  that  might  easily 
resemble  in  its  curve  of  progression  the  sound-photograph 
of  some  peculiar  noise.  To  an  aggressively  rhythmic 
spectator,  witnessing  both  performances,  spontaneity,  ease, 
and  fitness  between  the  motions  and  the  task  would 
characterize  the  Indian's  movements,  while  awkwardness 
and  more  or  less  wasted  effort  would  mark  the  upward 
advance  of  the  city-bred  man. 

In  verse  the  "timer"  looks  for  particular  forms  of 
temporal  and  accentual  "moving  balance"  from  beat  to 
beat,  as  when  one  dances  or  marches  on  level  ground; 
in  prose  it  is  as  if  one  climbed  over  stock  and  stone,  where 
it  is  not  a  matter  of  any  certain  balance-pattern,  but  of 
maintaining  an  easy  succession  of  balances,  whose  choice 
depends  very  largely  upon  economy  or  upon  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  Thus  it  is  with  the  rhythm  of  his  thought, 
so  long  as  it  is  conducted  by  fairly  clear  images  and  words.5 
To  the  aggressively  rhythmic  even  a  train  of  fleeting 
imagery  usually  preserves  a  certain  orderliness  of  move- 
ment, varying  from  the  simple,  wave-like  curve  of  grace 
to  the  cumulative  swing  of  dynamic  efficiency.  But  the 
essence  of  the  "timer's"  thought-rhythm  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  heretofore  described.  It  consists  in  the  fusion 
of  at  least  two  processes :  first,  the  consciousness  of  tension- 
summits,  small  and  large;  second,  subjective  impressions  of 
temporal  intervals  between  these  summits,  syncopating  or 
coinciding  with  certain  pulse-like  impressions,  marking 
subjective  units  of  time.  These  unitary  pulses  are  elastic, 
that  is  capable  of  accelerating  and  retarding,  just  as  when 

1  With  regard  to  imageless  thought,  see  Binet,  A.  and  Simon,  T.f 
Langage  et  penste,  XIV,  1908,  p.  339. 


88  THE  RHYTHM   OF   PROSE 

they  assist  in  measuring  the  intervals  of  articulate  speech; 
but  in  thought-rhythm  the  possibilities  of  speed-change 
seem  to  be  tremendously  increased.  Such  Protean  rhythm 
leaps  over  chasms,  dangles  on  the  edge  of  precipices,  swoops 
through  abysses,  shivers  itself  into  atomic  dust,  or  suddenly 
liquefies  into  the  dignity  of  oceans.  These  measuring 
pulses,  with  their  exaggerated  range  of  elasticity,  never 
quite  forsake  the  "timer's"  waking  hours.  A  night  of 
dreamless  sleep  shrinks  into  half  a  beat,  a  moment  of  pain 
plays  a  protracted  gamut  of  duration;  but  the  soul  once 
definitely  committed  to  the  rhythm  of  subjective  time 
spins  on  like  a  gyroscope,  regardless  of  upsetting. 

The  general  results  of  the  present  investigation,  including 
a  statement  of  whatever  well-known  principles  have  been 
confirmed,  in  addition  to  whatever  new  explanations  and 
conclusions  seem  to  be  justified  by  the  data  adduced  in 
Appendix  III,  may  be  listed  as  follows: 

I.  Rhythmic  experience,  rather  than  so-called  objective 
rhythm,   deserves  the  focus  of  our  attention.     Rhythmic 
performance  exhibits  interesting  objective  relations,  but  the 
vital  issue,  even  in  performance,  is  the  nature  of  accom- 
panying subjective  reactions. 

II.  Rhythmic  experience  is  so  complex,  and  individuals 
differ  so  largely  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  that  a  new  phrasing 
of  its  meaning  would  be  necessary  for  each  person,  in  order 
to  avoid  errors  of  inaccurate  generalization.     Nevertheless, 
for  all   practical   purposes,   its  varieties  may  be  roughly 
grouped  into  three  kinds:    passive,  passive  with  aggressive 
tendencies,    and    thoroughly    aggressive.    So,    there    are 
inaccurate  and  accurate  manifestations;    experiences  based 
chiefly  upon  sensations  of  stress,   and  experiences  based 
chiefly  upon  impressions  of  time;  etc.,  etc. 

III.  "Aggressive"   implies,    first   of   all,    the   ability   to 
organize  subjectively  into  a  sort  of  rhythmic   tune  any 
haphazard  series  of  sounds,  provided  they  are  not  too  close 


CONCLUSION  89 

to  be  distinguished  or  too  far  apart  to  be  held  together  in 
one  wave  of  attention.  Observer  No.  7  evinces  such 
ability.  A  more  detailed  analysis  of  aggressive  character- 
istics is  given  further  on. 

IV.  Since    the    rhythmic    experience    of    an    aggressive, 
fairly   accurate    "timer"    appears   to   be,    not   only   more 
comprehensive,  but  also  much  more  definite  and  generally 
intelligible  than  that  of  any  confirmed  "stresser,"  especially 
with  regard  to  irregular  series  of  sounds  such  as  characterize 
prose  utterance,  the  description  of  such  a  "timer's"  experi- 
ence is  the  most  advisable  approach  we  can  make  to  a 
working  definition  of  rhythm,  subjectively  considered. 

V.  Rhythmic   experience,   in  the   case   of  the   "timer," 
depends,  primarily,  upon  the  organization  of  some  part  of 
consciousness  into  a  series  of  elastic  subjective  units  of 
time  (marked  by  subjective  tension-summits  or  by  sensa- 
tions of  actual  muscular  contraction).     This  is  his  simplest 
form    of   rhythmic    experience,    which    may    be    amplified 
either  by  the  coincidence  of  any  other  successive  states  of 
consciousness   with   this   elastic   series   or   by   some   more 
complicated     form     of     coordination,     obtained     through 
syncopation.     Elastic    means    accelerating    or    retarding, 
within  limits  subjectively  determined,  beyond  which  the 
impression  of  substitutional  "grouping"  takes  the  place  of 
"unitary  pulses."    This  means,  for  instance,  that  if  one 
interval  is  very  much  faster  than  another  it  assumes  the 
relation  to  its  predecessor  of  a  simple  fraction  such  as  one 
half  or  one  third  rather  than  the  relation  of  progressive 
hastening.     According  to  Squire,6  the  most  primitive  form 
of  rhythm,  as  evinced  by  children,  is  unitary.     The  evi- 
dence of  certain  forms  of  tom-tom  beating,  such  as  some 
of  those  recorded  by  Boas  in  connection  with  the  Kwakiutl 
Indians,  and  others  observed  among  the  Apaches  by  the 
present   writer,   indicate   that   primitive   peoples   have   an 

8  Squire,  op.  tit.,  p.  540  ff. 


90  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

unmistakable  fondness  for  series  of  monotonous,  ungrouped 
drum-beats,  either  alone  or  combined,  by  means  of  syncopa- 
tion, with  more  complicated  series  of  sounds.  At  certain 
rates  of  speed,  the  well-known  phenomena  of  subjective 
grouping  into  two's,  three's,  etc.,  either  voluntary  or 
involuntary,  begin  to  operate;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  at  other  somewhat  slower  rates  this  subjective  group- 
ing ceases,  although  soothing  or  exciting  reactions  may 
persist.  With  the  aggressive  "timer"  these  affective 
reactions  are  likely  to  persist  until  the  individual  limit  of 
an  attention  span  is  reached. 

VI.  Precise  objective  measurement  of  the  syllabic  inter- 
vals of  ordinary  prose,  spoken  in  a  natural  manner,  proves 
that  these  intervals  must  be  considered,  mathematically,  as 
forming  a  virtually  haphazard  series.     Such  spoken  prose 
does  not  produce  an  unbroken  rhythmic  experience,  except 
for  observers,  like  No.  7,  who  can  subjectively  organize, 
upon  a  temporal  basis,  an  objectively  irregular  drum-beat 
series. 

VII.  Observer   No.    7   in   certain   states   of   mind,    not 
always,  obtained  a  continuous,  definite  rhythmic  experience 
from  every  series  of  drum-beats,  however  irregular,  which 
was   presented   to   him.     Other   observers   showed   similar 
tendencies,  but  not  so  clearly.     (See  record  of  Observer  No. 
12,   who  judges   Pater  as  regular  music;    Appendix   III, 
section  xxvii.) 

VIII.  Wundt's  statement,  that  no  series  of  impressions 
exists  that  cannot  in  some  way  be  conceived  as  rhythmic,  is 
experimentally  established,  but  with  the  limitation  that  no 
clear,  continuous  rhythmic  experience  is  possible  in  connec- 
tion with  haphazard  series,  except  for  individuals  especially 
endowed. 

IX.  When  this  experience  of  rhythm  is  easily  produced 
by  repeated    renderings   of   a   passage   of    prose,    and   is 
accompanied    by    suggestions    of    spontaneity    (judged    by 


CONCLUSION  91 

surprise)  in  the  organization  of  the  time-intervals,  stress- 
groups,  and  complex-tension-groups,  which  are  coordinated 
with  the  under-unit  of  time,  two  standards  (ease  and 
spontaneity)  are  attained  which  may  be  regarded  as 
musical.  When,  however,  it  becomes  possible  to  judge  the 
appropriateness  of  the  rhythmic  movement  to  the  under- 
lying thought  and  mood,  a  specific  literary  standard  is 
added  to  the  musical  point  of  view.  A  passage  of  prose 
may  thus  be  said  to  have  rhythmic  "possibilities,"  the  sum 
of  which  may  be  graded  high  or  low  according  to  the 
"literary"  standard  of  fitness,  in  addition  to  its  grading  as 
purely  musical. 

X.  Language  is  regarded  by  a  "timer"  as  rhythmically 
"prose"  (in  its  sum  of  possibilities  when  uttered)  so  long  as 
syncopation  and  substitution  predominate  over  coincidence 
between  the  accented  syllables  and  an  under-unit  series  of 
subjective  time-intervals.    When  coincidence  predominates, 
language  is  rhythmically  "verse."     The  division  into  lines 
and  stanzas  is  sufficient  often  to  suggest  to  the  mind  the 
combination   of   processes   by   means   of   which   potential 
prose  is  regarded  or  felt  as  verse.     This  explains  Wallin's 
experiments.7 

XI.  Meumann's  statement  that  there  is  no  one  sense  of 
rhythm,  but  rather  a  complex  of  mental  processes,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  results  of  the  tests.     Rhythmic  experience 
may  thus  be  roughly  described  as  a  complex  of  perception, 
emotion,  and  sensation,  with  all  three  elements  subjected 
to  the  moulding  processes  of  attention,  both  voluntary  and 
involuntary.     Correlation   with   a   subjective   temporal   unit, 
however,  is  indispensable  to  the  clear-cut  rhythmic  satisfac- 
tion felt  by  a  "tuner."     "Suggestions"  of  rhythm,  to  be 
sure,   are   easily   derived   by   the   mere   repetition   of   an 
accentual  sequence  —  such  as  two  accents  in  one  phrase, 
matched  by  two  accents  in  another.     But  if  we  examine 

7  Wallin,  op.  cit.,  p.  64  ff.    See  also  Chapter  II,  above. 


92  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

closely  any  actual  experience,  we  find  that  time  relations 
are  inevitably  implicated.  The  "stresser"  is  consequently 
seen  to  be  a  "timer"  in  spite  of  himself.  What  makes  his 
rhythmic  experience  vague  is  not  that  time-sense  is  absent, 
but  merely  that  it  is  deficient. 

XII.  Syncopation  is  an  accepted  musical  term  of  great 
significance  in  the  analysis  of  rhythmic  experience.8    Sound 
rhythm,   of  course,   deals  with  sounds  and  silences;    but 
concomitant  with  purely  sound  rhythm  is  motor  rhythm, 
thought  rhythm,  etc.     Concomitant  sets  of  time-intervals, 
accordingly,   when  not   coinciding,   institute   one   form   of 
syncopation.    Another  form   occurs   when  there  is  inter- 
change in  the  nature  of  the  sensations  or  movements  which 
mark    off    time-intervals.     Finger-taps    alternating    with 
spoken  syllables  are  an  illustration.     The  series  of  tapped 
intervals  laps  over  the  series  marked  by  syllables. 

XIII.  "Spontaneous  substitution"  is  a  term,  used  in  the 
present  work,  for  a  principle  illustrated  almost  anywhere  in 
the  sonatas  of  Beethoven,  the  nocturnes  of  Chopin,  or  such 
familiar  music  as  the  "Scenes  from  Childhood"  by  Schu- 
mann.    It  occurs  whenever  a  triplet,  for  instance,  enters  un- 
expectedly into  the  course  of  a  melody  already  announced, 
as  a  substitute  for  an  equivalent  single  note.     If  this  triplet 
were  to  occur  in  each  half  of  the  melody  at  an  expected 
point,  it  would,  of  course,  be  merely  a  case  of  "schematic 
substitution."    The  principle  is  illustrated  very  clearly  on 
the  first  page  of  "The  Temple  of  Memphis,"  composed  for 
the  piano  by  Cyril  Scott.    Toward  the  beginning  of  the 
piece  we  can  see  the  unit-interval,  supposed  to  be  pulsing 
regularly   in   the   bass,    spontaneously   subdivided   in   the 

8  This  must  not  be  confused  with  the  limited  use  of  "Syncope," 
as  employed  by  Sievers  (Rhythmische-melodische  Studien,  Heidelberg, 
1912,  p.  10)  to  mean  the  omission  of  an  unaccented  syllable  in  a 
"foot,"  on  account  of  which  omission  an  accented  syllable  does  duty 
for  the  two,  etc. 


CONCLUSION  93 

treble,  at  one  time  into  two,  at  another  into  three  or  four 
smaller  intervals.  Further  on  we  find  the  unitary  pulses 
themselves  grouped  into  clusters  of  varying  size.  The 
majority  of  observers,  in  the  present  tests,  without  knowing 
the  source  of  what  they  were  judging,  pronounced  the 
rhythm  to  be  interesting  and  pleasant,  feeling  the  unitary 
pulses  as  the  dominant  impression.  Applied  as  an  organiz- 
ing factor  to  the  haphazard  beats  of  prose,  the  principle 
was  accredited  by  the  observers  with  considerable  value. 

XIV.  A  "subjective  accent"  in  speech  is  a  complex 
tension-summit,  in  which  impressions  of  stress,  pitch; 
duration,  and  tone-color,  in  addition  to  associations  due  to 
thought  and  feeling,  collaborate  in  various  proportions  to 
produce  a  more  or  less  conspicuous  foothold  for  attention. 
"Grammatical  accent"  has  been  used  as  a  term  for  the 
conventional  stress  relations  between  the  syllables  of  a 
word,  as  recorded  in  dictionaries.  Syllables  have  no 
integrity  as  sensations  corresponding  to  their  values  as 
assigned  by  convention.  Some  observers  "feel"  a  three- 
syllable  word  as  a  continuum  with  a  single  crest.  It 
appears  that  most  observers,  influenced  largely  by  con- 
vention, experience  a  three-syllable  word  as  a  continuum 
with  three  crests,  one  higher  than  the  others.  Some 
observers,  however,  feel  three  or  four  crests  in  a  word  of 
only  two  syllables  such  as  "swarming."  The  same  is  true 
for  a  series  of  words  uttered  together  in  the  continuum  of  a 
phrase.  So  far  as  objective  measurements  are  concerned 
the  sound-photograph  of  a  single  vowel  frequently  exhibits 
half  a  dozen  crests. 

A  subjective  accent  in  which  either  grammatical  or 
fortuitous  stress  predominates  may  be  pitted  against  an 
accent  due  to  logical  or  rhetorical  import.  So  pitch  may 
be  balanced  against  duration.  This  is  usually  called  a 
form  of  "substitutional"  or  "occult"  balance.  The  ob- 
servers differ  in  the  pleasure  they  elicit  from  the  general 


94  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

operation  of  this  principle  by  degrees  ranging  from  enthu- 
siasm to  resentment. 

XV.  "Aggressively  rhythmic"  is  a  term  applied  to  those 
who,  like  Observer  No.  7,  not  only  attain  a  fair  degree  of 
reproductive  precision  in  the  tests,  but  evince  a  marked 
pleasure  in  rhythmic  exercises  and  a  marked  tendency  to 
organize   upon   a   temporal   subjective   basis   all   of   their 
conscious  life.    Abundance  and  vividness  of  auditory  and 
motor  imagery;    unit  accuracy;   sense  of  swing  and  ability 
to  syncopate,  especially  in  complex  tasks;    pleasure  in  the 
effects  of  acceleration  and  syncopation;   pleasure  in  unitary 
pulses  as  well  as  in  groupings  superimposed  upon  them; 
and,  finally,  strength  of  voluntary  and  involuntary  "sub- 
jective rhythm,"  seem  to  be  the  conditions  of  this  ability 
to  organize,  upon  a  time  basis,  any  haphazard  series. 

Observer  No.  7  is  "aggressively  rhythmic."  Observers 
No.  1  and  12  show  some  of  the  aggressive  characteristics, 
though  not  all.  "Accurately  rhythmic,  but  passive" 
describes  Observer  No.  11.  "Fairly  accurate,  passively 
rhythmic,  but  with  aggressive  possibilities"  classifies 
roughly  Observers  No.  4,  6,  and  8;  "inaccurately  rhythmic, 
with  varying  degrees  of  passiveness,"  Observers  No.  2,  3, 
5,  9,  and  10.  This  grouping  stands,  of  course,  for  results 
of  limited  tests.  A  later  set  of  experiments  might  easily 
change  the  arrangement. 

XVI.  An  elastic  under-unit  (either  strictly  "unitary"  or 
grouped  in  two's  or  three's),  spontaneous  substitution,  and 
the  imposition  of  a  humming  tune,   seem  to  give  most 
assistance  to  the  present  group  of  observers,  taken  as  a 
whole,  in  obtaining  a  continuous  rhythmic  experience  out  of 
haphazard  material.    But  for  those  who  score  highest  in  the 
requirements   listed   under  XV  for   "aggressive  rhythmic 
sense"  (Observer  No.  7  and  to  some  extent  No.  12)  syn- 
copation is  of  prime  importance.     No.  12  grades  it  higher 
than  any  of  the  other  organizing  factors. 


CONCLUSION  .  95 

XVII.  The   experiments   in    syncopation    practice   with 
seven's  against  five's,  together  with  the  judgments  passed 
by  the  observers  in  connection  with  hearing  haphazard 
series,  point  very  strongly  to  the  combination  of  a  time- 
beating  motor  performance,  such  as  tapping  unitary  pulses 
with  the  hand,  and  the  syncopating  hummed  performance 
of  the  haphazard  beats,  as  the  quickest  means  whereby  an 
aggressively  rhythmic  observer  can  organize  the  series  upon 
a  basis  capable  of  approximately  accurate  repetition. 

XVIII.  For  a  passively  rhythmic  observer,  the  hearing 
of  such  tunes  from  others,  and  the  watching  of  their  per- 
formance, is  of  great  service  in  developing  aggressiveness. 

XIX.  For  aggressively  rhythmic  states  of  mind  and  for 
these  alone,  it  is  true  that  "no  series  of  impressions  exists 
that  cannot  in  some  way  be  conceived  as  rhythmic";  but 
the  secret  can  be  made  clear  to  those   with  aggressive 
possibilities,  by  beating  and  humming  syncopating  rhythmic 
tunes,  in  which  there  is  added  to  the  haphazard  series  the 
properly  elastic  series  of  unitary  pulses. 

XX.  The    tests    for   individual    difference    in    imitative 
"sense  of  swing"  and  ability  to  perform  tasks  in  simple 
and  complex  syncopation  show  a  close  correlation  in  some 
cases.    But  there  are  marked  exceptions.     (See  Appendix 
III,  sections  vii,  viii,  xxii,  and  xxiv.) 

XXI.  Evident  deficiency  in  auditory  imagery  is  accom- 
panied in  the  present  tests  by  marked  inability  to  syn- 
copate, but  not  necessarily  by  marked  inability  to  catch 
the   swing  of  a  series.     The  indications   are  that  motor 
imagery  may  be  of  more  assistance  in  the  latter  operation 
than  in  syncopation.     (See  Appendix  III,  sections  iv,  vii, 
viii,  xxii,  and  xxiv.) 

XXII.  It  is  a  mathematical  fact,   due  merely  to  the 
possibilities  of  permutation  and  combination,  that  all  the 
conceivable  changes  in  the  stress-patterns  of  language  could 
easily  have  been  rung  long  ago.    Subtlety  of  adjustment, 


96  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

appropriateness  of  rhythm  to  sense,  especially  in  larger 
grouping,  has  "developed";  but  until  the  true  psychological 
attitude  toward  rhythm  as  an  experience  is  observed,  any 
so-called  "history  of  the  development  of  rhythm"  is  certain 
to  be  founded  upon  misconceptions.9 

XXIII.  How  idle  it  is  to  depend  on  any  one  "scanning" 
of  a  passage  is  proved  by  the  tests  on  "possibility  scanning" 
described  in  Appendix  III,  section  xvii.     By  one  observer 
a  short  group  of  words  was  found  susceptible  of  being 
marked  for  stress,  pitch,  duration,  and  weight,  in  seven 
hundred  ways!    By  two  others  the  number  was  found  to 
.be   much   larger.     The    marking    of   grammatical    accents 
often   serves   a   useful   purpose  in   assisting   us   to   locate 
unpleasant  monotony,  tricks  of  style,  etc.,  but  we  should 
not  forget  that  rapidity  of  utterance  can  smooth  out  most 
of  the  grammatical  accents,   while  a  slow  delivery  may 
create  unexpected  summits  of  stress. 

XXIV.  The  recent  study  of  sentence  melody,  elaborated 
by  Sievers,  is  open  to  similar  objections.    As  the  hobby  of  a 
great  scholar  it  is  interesting-,  and  as  a  poetic  speculation 
it  is  no  doubt  alluring;  but  as  an  accurate  basis  for  textual 
criticism  nothing  could  be  more  shaky.    It  appears  fantas- 
tic enough  to  get  the  "one  right"  melody  out  of  a  printed 
stanza  of  modern  verse,  but  to  attempt  such  necromancy 
for  an  ancient  text10  seems  hardly  in  keeping  with  the 
scientific  aims  of  modern  scholarship. 

9  Nothing  is  more  astonishing  than  to  find  the  evidence  for  some 
"remarkable   rhythm"   adduced   in   the  form   of  bare   conventional 
scanning.     In  a  previous  study,  the  writer  undertook  to  mark  gram- 
matical accent,  according  to  the  rules  of  approved  philology,  in  a  few 
passages  taken  out  of  our  oldest  Kentish  and  West-Saxon  charters, 
about  as  dry  business  documents  as  we  possess,   and  found  very 
shortly  the  most  varied  and  entertaining  combinations  of  "phonics" 
and  "dochmiacs."     To  see,  therefore,  these  same  stress-patterns,  or 
rather  sequences  of  eye-rhythm,  pointed  out  in  a  passage  of  Walter 
Pater  as  an  evidence  of  "development,"  would  be  disconcerting. 

10  Sievers,  E.,  Zur  dlteren  Judith,  Prag,  1908. 


CONCLUSION  97 

XXV.  Three  standards  —  ease,  spontaneity,  and  fitness 
—  have  been  mentioned  in  section  IX,  according  to  which 
we  pass  judgment  on  rhythmic  experience.    When  we  tap 
the  drum-beat  tune  of  a  sentence  and  establish  our  synco- 
pating under-unit  of  time,  we  are  in  a  position  to  detect 
clumsiness,  artifice,  or  impropriety  in  the  swing  suggested 
by  the  spoken  text.     Degree  of  ease  is  soon  determined  by 
the  facility  with  which  we  can  nod  or  tap  or  move  our  feet 
to   the  movement   of  the   drum-beat   tune.    The   highest 
value,  in  such  a  case,  would  be  put  upon  a  sentence  in 
which  the  greatest  ease  was  combined  with  a  maximum  of 
complexity  in  structure.     Our  judgments  for  spontaneity 
would  depend  upon  our  ability  to  establish  evidence  of  tech- 
nical trickery  in  the  shape  of  repeated  patterns,  etc.    Fitness 
is  the  most  difficult  of  the  three  standards  to  apply.    With 
a  militant  theme  the  propriety  of  a  martial  rhythm  would 
be  easy  to  estimate;   but  with  subtle  and  suggestive  thought 
material,  it  would  take  almost  as  much  ability  to  detect  a 
degree  of  fitness  as  to  create  it.     Here,  too,  is  where  tone- 
color  and  nicety  of  diction  may  be  easily  mistaken  for  the 
actual  rhythmic  movement,  which,  of  course,  they  influence. 

XXVI.  All  judgments  of  rhythmic  experience  connected 
with    prose    depend    upon    individual    renderings    of    the 
passage,  which  must  be  read  aloud  repeatedly,  as  well  as 
tapped.     Underlying  the  variations  resulting  from  such  a 
series  of  renderings,  three  causes  or  motives  may  be  men- 
tioned:  caprice,  economy,  and  artistic  adjustment.     In  the 
first  place,  a  certain  tempo  or  a  certain  sequence  of  stress- 
groups   may   easily   depend    upon    a   whim.     The   second 
motive  rests  upon  the  fact  that  good  form  is  economical. 
Efficiency  in  delivering  a  message  demands  sometimes  bal- 
ance, sometimes  contrast;    sometimes  progressive  increase 
or  the  reverse;    sometimes  speed,  sometimes  more  dignity 
of  pace.     The  third  motive  implies,   not  simply  specific 
attempts  at  an  appropriate  rhythm,  but  a  sportive  interest 


98  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

in  the  problem  of  multiplying  complications  without 
sacrificing  ease,  as  if  it  were  all  a  sort  of  game.  This 
verges  readily  into  artifice. 

XXVII.  Fundamental  rhythmic  experience,  in  the  case 
of  a  timer,  listening  to  spoken  language,  is  either  the  result 
of  coincidence  or  syncopation  between  the  measuring  pulses 
and  the  objective  stimulus;   i.e.,  it  is  either  verse  or  prose 
experience,   according  to  the  form  of  coordination  which 
predominates.      A    secondary    broader    rhythm    may    be 
superimposed  in  which  the  arrangement  of  groups  is  either 
symmetrical  or  unsymmetrical.     The  enjoyment  of  this  is 
often  more  a  matter  of  sensations  of  static  balance  than  of 
temporal   succession.     Only  when   the   temporal   intervals 
involved  are  in  the  forefront  is  the  resulting  experience 
strictly    rhythmical.     In    any    case,    these    four    elements 
—  fundamental  prose  and   fundamental  verse   experience, 
"superimposed  symmetrical  and  superimposed  unsymmetrical 
broader    grouping  —  make     possible    four     combinations: 
prose  experience,  grouped  symmetrically,  as  in  the  reaction 
from  parts  of  the  Authorized  Version  where  verses  match 
each  other;   prose  experience,  grouped  unsymmetrically,  as 
in  the  reaction  from  ordinary  conversation  or  the  reading 
of   average   so-called    "prose";   verse   experience,   grouped 
symmetrically,  as  in  the  reaction  from  ordinary  "poetry"; 
verse  experience,  grouped  unsymmetrically,  as  in  the  re- 
action from  "freer"  forms  of  poetry  and  from  passages  of 
would-be  prose.     This  applies  to  "timers."    As  soon  as  we 
substitute  for  their  clear-cut  forms  of  temporal  coordination 
the  vague  impressions  of  a  "stresser"  with  defective  time- 
sense,  it  is  impossible  to  make  distinctions,  and  all  the 
delusions  of  certain  writers  of  "vers  libre"  and  "poetic 
prose"  take  possession  of  the  field. 

XXVIII.  The  student  of  rhetoric  who  wishes  to  develop 
possibilities  of  rhythmic  excellence  in  his  attempts  to  write 
verse,  even  though  he  be  by  nature  deficient  in  time-sense, 


CONCLUSION  99 

may  be  brought  to  feel  the  difference  between  compositions 
that  are  merely  "correct"  and  "duly  varied,"  both  syllab- 
ically  and  metrically,  and  verse  in  which  ease,  spontaneity, 
and  fitness  in  the  drum-beat  tunes  are  also  included  among 
the  criteria.  It  is  presupposed,  of  course,  that  a  satis- 
factory adjustment  of  vowel  and  consonant  color,  as  well 
as  of  associations  due  to  fundamental  thought  and  feeling, 
must  be  likewise  attained. 

So  there  needs  to  be  a  new  procedure  in  the  study  of 
prose  composition.  It  is  here  that  a  native  "stresser," 
with  defective  time-sense,  particularly  needs  to  sharpen  his 
blunted  perceptions.  While  he  reads  the  standard  authors 
he  should  walk  or  tap  or  nod  an  accompaniment,  with  his 
attention  fixed  on  syncopation  rather  than  coincidence. 
If  he  really  wishes  to  develop  his  time-sense  systematically, 
he  should  make  himself  expert  in  the  automatic  perform- 
ance of  syncopating  tasks,  such  as  tapping  two's  against 
three's  or  even  five's  against  seven's  (a  comparatively  easy 
feat  if  only  he  can  be  assisted  by  some  one  who  himself 
has  mastered  it,  and  who  can  let  him  hear  the  drum-beat 
tune  of  a  fairly  correct  performance,  as  is  indicated  roughly 
in  Appendix  II,  section  xxiv,  sub-sections  2  and  3).  In  any 
case  let  him  tap  off  the  drum-beat  rhythm  of  his  most 
impelling  experience  with  a  sentence  till  he  learns  it;  then 
let  him  hum  it  as  a  sort  of  tune,  while  he  establishes,  by 
beating  tune  with  his  hand,  the  proper  accelerating  and 
retarding  series  of  unitary  pulses  with  which  it  is  freely  to 
syncopate.  The  rhythmic  tunes  thus  learned  from  Sir 
Thomas  Browne,  De  Quincey,  or  Pater  will  sing  themselves 
in  his  head  while  he  does  his  own  writing,  so  that  without 
knowing  it,  he  will  be  guided  in  his  choice  of  words  toward 
whatever  rhythmic  facility  it  is  in  him  to  acquire.  The 
last  step  would  be  to  reclothe  the  drum-beat  tunes  with 
the  complicated  veil  of  tone-color  and  sense-association  due 
to  their  original  words,  and  let  them  dance  themselves,  by 


100  THE  RHYTHM  OF  PROSE 

means  of  repeated  practice,  into  the  automatic  processes  of 
the  brain.  If  they  help  us  at  all,  they  probably  help  us 
most  when  thus  hidden. 

XXIX.  Many  of  the  methods  of  literary  criticism  need 
to  be  revised  in  a  similar  way.  Any  judgment  passed  upon 
the  rhythmic  possibilities  of  an  author's  style,  is  of  no 
value  psychologically,  if  motor  response  is  neglected  as  a 
test.11  Vague  impressions  from  a  person  whose  musical  ear 
is  abnormally  keen  may  easily  be  considered  of  greater 
value  than  mechanical  analysis  on  the  part  of  some  un- 
musical, unliterary  hair-splitter;  but  the  time  is  surely  past 
when  any  man  of  unusual  endowment  is  willing  to  throw 
away  the  advantages  of  efficient  method  or  to  oppose  his 
so-called  "intuition,"  subject  as  all  human  senses  are  to 
countless  illusions,  to  the  cumulative  evidence  of  experi- 
mental data. 

Any  experimental  undertaking,  however,  which  is  not 
based  upon  a  thorough  understanding  of  syncopation  and 
its  multiform  possibilities,  of  spontaneous  substitution,  of 
acceleration  and  retarding,  and  the  "sense  of  swing,"  will 
find  the  problem  slippery.  Fortunately,  all  of  these  factors, 
once  made  plain  even  to  a  passively  rhythmic  mind,  are 
much  easier  to  apply  in  the  actual  study  of  a  bit  of  prose, 
than  the  ancient  trumpery  of  skeleton  scanning — "am- 
phibrachs,"  "bacchics,"  "anti-bacchics,"  "antispasts," 
"molossi,"  "dochmiacs,"  and  " proceleusmatics "  —  which 
heretofore  have  been  brandished  before  our  eyes,  as  if 
they  were  anything  more  than,  as  stress-patterns,  merely 
half  the  story. 

Each  individual  must  make  his  own  rhythmic  judgments 
as  to  spontaneity,  ease,  and  fitness.  The  judgments  as  to 
fitness,  involving  every  form  of  association  and  suggestion, 

11  According  to  Stetson,  "Every  rhythm  is  dynamic;  it  consists  of 
actual  movements."  See  Chapter  II,  above,  for  statements  from 
various  psychologists. 


CONCLUSION  101 

would  include  descriptive  terms  for  any  particular  move- 
ment, as  well  as  for  special  types  of  subjective  syncopation. 
Adjectives  of  all  degrees  of  definiteness  (such  as  "cumula- 
tive," "undulating,"  "rugged,"  "languorous,"  "martial," 
"galloping,"  "soothing,"  "exciting,"  "dignified,"  or  "bois- 
terous") would  still  be  used  to  illustrate  motor  and  sensory 
suggestions.  "Falling"  and  "rising,"  as  terms  descriptive 
of  patterns  in  which  the  precedence  of  accented  or  unac- 
cented syllables  is  emphasized,  possess  just  as  much  sig- 
nificance, and,  in  fact,  much  more  when  the  temporal 
element  is  duly  valued. 

Finally,  to  make  a  shift  from  literary  criticism  to  broader 
fields,  there  may  issue  from  investigations  similar  to  the 
present  one,  as  a  possible  result  —  significant  for  music,  for 
literature,  and  for  living  in  general  —  a  more  or  less  fruitful 
interest,  on  the  part  of  the  moderately  rhythmic,  in  their 
chance  to  breathe  the  air  of  a  garden,  from  which  they 
were  before  excluded.  There  is  still  for  them  a  wall  to  be 
climbed,  but  at  least  there  are  no  "  proceleusmatic "  palings 
on  the  top  of  it.  The  condition  imposed,  that  we  should  learn 
to  syncopate,  if  we  wish  to  advance  into  the  secret  places  of 
rhythmic  experience,  is  not  so  forbidding  as  it  sounds.  So 
far  as  the  requisite  technique  is  concerned,  every  optimistic 
little  African  who  performs  the  double-shuffle  has,  in  a 
measure,  "attained."  For  instruments,  all  we  need  is  a 
table,  and  two  fingers  with  which  to  practice  tapping. 

XXX.  To  what  an  extent  an  individual  whose  rhythmic 
proficiency  is  less  than  moderate  can  develop  the  charac- 
teristics of  an  aggressive  "timer,"  is  a  matter  for  further 
investigation  and  experiment.  It  seems,  at  any  rate, 
assured  from  the  tests  already  made  in  syncopation  practice 
(see  Appendix  III,  section  xxiv)  that  an  observer,  appar- 
ently deficient  in  temporal  perception,  can  very  quickly 
surprise  himself  by  his  achievements,  when  assisted  by  the 
harmless  magic  of  a  drum-beat  tune. 


'   .' 


APPENDIX  I 
DESCRIPTION  OF  APPARATUS 

For  the  purpose  of  the  experiments  two  rooms  were  used:  one 
the  regular  sound-room  belonging  to  the  Department  of  Psychology 
at  Columbia;  the  other,  an  especially  constructed,  fairly  sound-proof 
cabinet  built  into  one  end  of  an  underground  room  belonging  to  the 
Department  of  Physics.  Within  this  cabinet  a  second  cabinet  was 
set  up,  with  mattresses  and  thick  padding  for  walls  and  ceiling,  and 
several  inches  of  sawdust  on  the  floor.  Loose  curtains  of  canton- 
flannel  were  hung  inside  to  assist  in  preventing  reflection  of  sound. 
Within  these  surroundings,  devised  to  exclude  as  much  as  possible  of 
external  noise,  and  to  destroy  as  much  as  possible  of  internal  reflec- 
tion, were  installed  the  instruments  for  transforming  by  means  of  a 
diaphragm  and  small  mirrors,1  the  vibrations  of  the  voice  into  vibra- 
tions of  a  light-ray,  susceptible  of  being  photographed.  The  camera, 
including  the  machinery  for  regulating  the  motion  of  the  film,  was 
placed  on  the  other  side  of  a  padded  partition  which  cut  off  the  larger 
cabinet  from  the  rest  of  the  room,  A  very  small  plate-glass  window, 
set  into  the  partition,  allowed  the  ray  of  light  used  in  the  photographs 
to  pass  from  the  inner  cabinet  into  the  camera,  containing  the  moving 
film. 

One  of  the  chief  difficulties  in  securing  accurate  sound-photographs 
consists  in  getting  a  source  of  light  which  is  not  only  sufficiently  strong, 
but  sufficiently  quiet.  The  spluttering  of  an  arc-light,  which  seems 
to  have  been  used  in  similar  photography,  previous  to  our  experi- 
ments in  the  summer  of  1915,  is  in  itself  sufficient  to  communicate 
sound  vibrations  to  a  highly  sensitive  diaphragm.  Our  experiments, 
accordingly,  appear  to  have  been  the  first  in  which  the  photography 
of  continuous  speech,  involving  the  possibility  for  several  hundred  feet 
of  rapidly  moving  film  to  pass  by  without  intermission,  was  accom- 
plished with  a  system  of  convenient,  noiseless,  steady  sources  of  light. 


1  As  far  back  as  1878,  the  time  of  Blake's  experiments,  and  probably 
earlier,  such  instruments  have  been  in  use.  See  also  Rigollot,  H., 
and  Chavanon,  A.,  Projection  des  ph&nomknes  acoustiques,  Journal  de 
physique,  II,  1883. 

103 


104  APPENDIX  I 

In  order  to  carry  out  our  purpose,  small  Mazda  lights  were  used 
and  burned  at  an  abnormally  high  voltage.  Each  lamp  was  placed 
in  a  cylindrical  case  of  metal  and  a  ray  from  a  portion  of  the  straight 
filament  was  allowed  to  escape  through  a  slit  in  the  side  of  the  case. 
This  ray  was  conveyed  through  a  converging  lens  to  a  small  mirror 
attached  to  a  very  light  steel  axle  turning  upon  bearings  of  glass. 
This  axle  was  connected  with  a  mica  diaphragm  by  means  of  a  human 
hair  wound  once  about  the  axle,  with  one  end  fastened  to  the  dia- 
phragm and  the  other  to  a  metal  spring  which  projected  in  front  of 
the  mirror.  The  system  of  connecting  diaphragms  with  mirrors  of 
this  nature  has  been  hi  use  for  some  tune.  D.  C.  Miller1  describes 
such  a  diaphragm  connected  with  the  axle  by  means  of  a  quartz  thread. 
Miller,  in  his  very  well  known  investigations,  has  made  many  photo- 
graphs of  sound  with  an  arc-ray  as  a  source  of  light.  Oscillographs 
have,  of  course,  been  in  use  for  a  number  of  years. 

In  order  to  secure  a  time-line  sufficiently  accurate  for  the  purposes 
of  the  present  experiments,  a  similar  ray  from  a  Mazda  light  was 
conveyed  to  a  mirror  mounted  upon  a  spring  in  front  of  a  small  magnet, 
through  which  a  weak,  alternating  current  was  passed.3  By  means 
of  this  a  rate  of  approximately  sixty  vibrations  per  second  could  be 
counted  upon  in  the  ray  of  light  reflected  from  the  mirror.  This 
vibrating  ray  was  directed,  by  means  of  a  lens  and  a  second  mirror, 
through  the  window  in  the  partition  to  a  horizontal  slit  just  in  front 
of  the  moving  film.  The  image  from  the  ray,  being  a  vertical  line 
of  light,  crossed  the  slit  at  right  angles.  A  similar  ray  from  the  mirror 
in  front  of  the  diaphragm  was  projected  so  that  the  image  fell  at  right 
angles  to  the  slit,  a  little  to  one  side  of  the  vibrating  time-line  image. 
The  intersections  of  these  two  lines  with  the  slit  formed  two  points 
of  light,  vibrating  in  a  horizontal  direction,  and  photographing  them- 
selves upon  the  vertically  moving  film  in  the  form  of  two  continuous 
curves.  By  means  of  rheostats,  the  electrically  driven  machinery 
within  the  camera  could  be  adjusted  to  carry  the  film  past  the  slit  at 
varying  rates  of  speed. 

The  chief  object  in  the  present  set  of  experiments  was  to  obtain  as 


1  Miller,  D.  C.,  in  Engineering,  1912,  p.  550  ff.  Some  tune  after 
the  present  experiments  were  finished,  Miller's  latest  investigations 
have  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  book,  The  Science  of  Musical  Sounds, 
N.  Y.,  1916.  This  contains  a  detailed  description  of  his  "phonodeik." 

1  The  disadvantage  connected  with  a  time-line  produced  by  the 
vibrations  of  a  tuning-fork  is  that  even  a  very  fault  humming  sound 
will  affect  a  sensitive  diaphragm. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  APPARATUS  105 

accurate  and  as  measurable  a  record  of  the  human  voice  as  possible 
without  the  restraint  and  artificiality  imposed  by  having  to  speak  into 
voice-keys  or  mouth-pieces  of  any  kind.  By  employing  a  rather 
sensitive  mica  diaphragm  it  was  possible,  on  account  of  the  noise- 
lessness  of  the  machinery  employed,  for  an  observer  to  stand  inside 
of  the  cabinet  at  a  comfortable  distance  from  the  instrument  and 
have  his  speech  recorded,  without  his  even  knowing  it.  A  complete 
solution,  consequently,  seems  to  have  been  found  to  the  problem 
whose  difficulty  prevented  Sievers,  hi  the  Vorwort  to  his  Phonetik, 
edition  of  1901,  from  giving  his  sanction  to  experimental  phonetics. 

In  addition  to  other  precautions  that  seemed  to  be  advisable,  the 
diaphragm  was  roughly  calibrated.  The  points  of  pitch  at  which 
phenomena  of  resonance  occurred  were  located  and  graphs  of  the 
results  were  made  for  purposes  of  correction  in  any  later  measurement 
of  amplitudes.  The  testing  of  the  diaphragm  was  effected  by  means 
of  organ  pipes  under  pneumatic  pressure.  During  this  operation,  as 
well  as  during  the  process  of  making  photographs,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  keep  the  cabinet  at  a  constant  temperature  of  about  18  degrees 
Centigrade. 

The  apparatus  made  use  of  in  the  series  of  experiments  carried  out 
in  the  sound-room  of  the  Psychological  Department  included,  first 
of  all,  a  Leipzig  time-sense  machine,  driven  by  clock-work,  which 
also  governed  the  motion  of  a  kymograph.  The  adjustments  were 
made  so  that  the  revolving  bar  of  the  time-machine  made  one  revolu- 
tion in  four  seconds,  .06  of  a  second  being  registered  by  one  milli- 
meter on  the  surface  of  the  smoked  drum  operated  by  the  kymograph. 
By  means  of  a  microscope,  readings  to  .01  of  a  second  were  easily 
possible.  For  the  purposes  of  the  experiments,  however,  an  accuracy 
of  .02  of  a  second  was  all  that  was  desired.  This,  too,  is  a  safer  basis 
of  estimate,  when  the  slight  irregularities  of  all  kymographs,  even 
when  driven  by  clockwork,  are  taken  into  consideration. 

The  seven  mercury  contacts  on  the  circumference  of  the  time- 
sense  machine  were  used  in  several  ways.  For  the  experiment  in  simple 
syncopation  six  of  them  were  placed  at  equal  intervals  of  sixty  degrees, 
while  the  seventh  one  was  sufficiently  depressed  to  avoid  a  response 
from  the  electric  sounder  attached  to  the  machine.  By  this  means, 
as  the  bar  revolved,  a  series  of  successive  clicks,  .66  sec.  apart,  was 
produced  by  the  sounder.  A  pointer  resting  on  the  revolving  drum 
and  connected  with  the  sounder  registered  upon  the  drum  the  series 
of  clicks.  A  second  pointer,  connected  with  an  electric  key  for  tapping, 
registered  the  attempts  of  the  observer  to  introduce  syncopating 
taps  halfway  between  the  clicks  of  the  sounder. 


106  APPENDIX  I 

The  same  setting  of  the  contacts  was  used  when  the  observer  was 
asked  to  tap  five  times,  as  regularly  as  possible,  during  the  time  that 
the  machine  produced  seven  clicks.  For  the  acceleration  experiment 
the  seven  contacts  were  set  in  such  a  way  that  their  intervals  pro- 
duced a  series  of  clicks  whose  spacing,  in  terms  of  time,  was  as  follows: 
.7  sec.,  .6  sec.,  .5  sec.,  .5  sec.,  .6  sec.,  .7  sec.  After  the  reproductions 
of  this  series  made  by  the  observer  had  been  measured,  according  to 
the  system  explained  in  Appendix  II,  the  contacts  were  set  from  time 
to  time  so  that  the  observer  could  himself  hear  from  the  machine  those 
of  his  reproductions  chosen  for  final  judgment  and  comparison  with 
the  original  series  as  given  by  the  machine.  This  procedure  made 
it  possible  to  carry  out  to  some  extent  Miiller's  suggestion4  in  his 
Methodik  that  in  experiments  with  time-sense  an  observer  might  by 
some  such  means  be  given  an  opportunity  to  compare  his  reproduc- 
tions with  the  original  stimulus  in  both  orders  of  time. 

In  addition  to  the  time-sense  machine  and  kymograph  with  its 
attachments,  a  sound  pendulum,  a  soundless  pendulum,  a  box  metro- 
nome, an  outside  metronome  mounted  upon  felt,  a  Stern  variator 
with  pneumatic  tank  attachments,  an  Edison  four-minute  cylinder 
phonograph,  and  finally  a  small  specially  constructed  metal  drum 
about  five  centimeters  in  diameter,  covered  at  one  end  with  a  thin 
sheet  of  phosphor-bronze,  were  employed  in  the  various  tests.  The 
drum  was  calculated  to  produce,  when  struck  by  a  stick  tipped  with  a 
small  piece  of  hard  rubber,  a  clear  but  not  obtrusively  loud  sound, 
with  as  little  suggestion  of  musical  tone  as  possible.  When  the  drum 
was  tapped,  accordingly,  the  attention  of  the  hearer  could  be  concen- 
trated upon  the  length  of  the  time  intervals  between  the  blows  and 
the  variations  in  the  intensity  of  the  latter.  A  series  of  taps  upon 
this  drum,  performed  by  Observer  No.  1  (in  accordance  with  "felt" 
syllables  in  passages  of  prose,  and  notes  in  music),  were  recorded 
upon  the  phonograph.  Judgments  were  passed  upon  the  nature  and 
presumable  origin  of  these  taps,  by  the  remaining  observers.  A  tunable 
reed-organ  was  used  in  the  harmony  tests.  Some  of  the  tests  for 
types  of  imagery  and  time-estimation  were  made  in  the  padded  cabinet 
in  which  the  sound-photographing  apparatus  was  installed. 


4  Miiller,  G.  E.,  Die  Gesichtspunkte  und  d.  Tatsachen  d.  psychophy- 
sischen  Methodik,  Wiesbaden,  1904,  p.  205. 


APPENDIX  II 

EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

(First  Day) 

(For  results  see 
Appendix  III) 

PAQB  PAGE 

I.   Preliminary  questionnaire 108  (130) 

II.  Pulse-rate  (rough) 109  (130) 

III.  Breath-rate  (rough) 109  (130) 

IV.  Image-type  test  (rough) 109  (131) 

V.  Unit-accuracy  —  simple  form 110  (131) 

VI.  Subjective  rhythm 110  (132) 

VII.  Acceleration  experiment  (test  for  "swing")     .  Ill  (133) 

VIII.  Schedule  syncopation. 113  (143) 

IX.   Complex  coordination 113  (144) 

X.   Walking-rate,  etc.  (rough) 113  (148) 

XL   Pitch  memory  (rough) 114  (149) 

XII.    Harmony  memory  (rough) 114  (150) 

XIII.  Vowel-quality  memory  (rough) 115  (151) 

(Second  Day) 

XIV.  Choice  of  "swing"  reproductions 116  (151) 

XV.   Intensity  memory  (rough) 116  (151) 

XVI.   Drum-beat  rhythm  of  texts 117  (152) 

XVII.   "Possibility"  scanning 118  (157) 

(Third  Day) 
One  week  after  Second  Day 

XVIII.   Pulse  consciousness 118  (158) 

XIX.   Breath-segments 118  (158) 

XX.   Photograph   of   seven-day-memory  reproduc- 
tion of  acceleration  series 119  (159) 

XXL   Judgment  and  line-division 119  (159) 

107 


108  APPENDIX  II 

(Fourth  Day) 

XXII.   Simple  syncopation 119  (159) 

XXIII.  Reaction  to  five's  and  seven's 120  (160) 

XXIV.  Complex    syncopation    (involving    regulated 

practice) 120  (161) 

XXV.   Individual  "swing" 122  (162) 

XXVI.  Musical" swing" 122  (167) 

XXVII.   Phonograph  test 122  (168) 

XXVIII.   Questionnaire 124  (170) 

XXIX.   Schedule  tests 125  (170) 

XXX.   Questionnaire 127  (172) 

XXXI.   Unitary  music  (first  test) 127  (173) 

XXXII.   Unitary  pulses 127  (174) 

XXXIII.  Unitary  music  (second  test) 127  (174) 

XXXIV.  Factors  in  organizing  drum-beat  series     .   .   .  128  (175) 


(First  Day) 
I.  Preliminary  questionnaire: 

1.  Age,  descent,  profession,  amount  of  musical  training. 

2.  Describe  your  favorite  type  or  types  of  music  and  your  men- 

tal and  physical  reactions  on  hearing  such  music. 

3.  Do  you  consider  yourself  as  of  a  more  or  less  even  tempera- 

ment or  given  to  moods? 

4.  Are  you  slow  or  quick  in  forming  likes  and  dislikes? 

5.  Have  you  ever  been  affected  by  music  in  a  manner  that  could 

have  been  plainly  visible  to  others? 

6.  Describe  your  interest  in  dancing. 

7.  Can  you  imagine  yourself  as  interested  in  complicated  drum- 

beating?    To  what  extent? 

8.  If  interested  in  verse  at  all,  mention  one  of  your  favorite 

poets. 

9.  If  interested  in  prose  style  at  all,  mention  one  of  your  favo- 

rite authors  in  this  connection. 

10.  Have  you  ever  written  original  verse? 

11.  Describe  the  sort  of  events  that  usually  occur  in  your  dreams. 

Do  you  see  things,  do  things,  or  hear  things,  chiefly? 

12.  Can  you  mention  any  actual  word  or  words  you  have  heard 

in  a  dream? 

13.  Can  you  name  any  sort  of  activity  in  which  you  could  take 

a  definite  interest  because  of  subtlety  in  its  form?     In 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE        109 

other  words,  could  you  enjoy  a  pattern  or  a  problem  just 
because  it  was  elusive? 

14.  Do  you  consider  that  your  scientific  or  artistic  or  practical 
interests  predominate? 

n.  Pulse-rate  (rough):  Determined  with  stop-watch  for  two  ten- 
second  stretches  and  one  thirty-second  stretch. 

m.  Breath-rate  (rough):  Observer  raises  finger  at  the  beginning  of 
each  inspiration,  while  the  experimenter  records  the  number 
indicated  during  thirty  seconds. 

IV.  Image-type  test  (rough) : 

First  half:  The  observer  is  given  a  list  of  printed  words  concealed 
by  a  loose  sheet  of  paper.  He  slips  the  sheet  down  so  as  to  expose 
one  word  at  a  time.  The  instant  he  has  read  the  word  he  closes 
his  eyes  and  attempts  to  identify  the  first  image  that  comes  into 
his  mind  after  the  image  of  the  printed  word  itself,  if  this  happens 
to  persevere.  Thereupon  he  opens  his  eyes  and  marks  the  nature 
of  the  image  according  to  the  following  abbreviations: 

V    -  visual  Temp  -  temperature 

A    •=  auditory  P         -  pain 

Olf  -  olfactory  Org     -  organic 

G    -  gustatory  K         -  kirurst hot ic 

T    -  touch  O         -  nothing  at  all 

All  images  of  actual  words,  seen,  heard,  or  spoken,  are  to  be 
marked  as  such:  V-verb,  or  K-verb,  A- verb.  Units  of  vividness 
are  also  to  be  added:  3  for  vivid,  2  for  medium,  1  for  dim. 

Second  half:  The  observer,  with  his  eyes  closed,  hears  a  list  of 
words  read  by  the  experimenter.  After  each  word  the  observer 
reports  the  kind  of  image  evoked  according  to  the  above  classifi- 
cation. 

LIST  or  STIMULUS  words: 

1.  (read  by  observer) :  hurry,  fountain,  clover,  yawn,  pool,  steam, 
decayed  tooth,  wind,  rooster,  whistle. 

2.  (heard  by  observer) :  plunge,  bell,  breathing,  spool,  ice,  flutter, 
skate,  fish,  owl,  crush. 

Observer  No.  1,  who  was  chosen  to  figure  in  a  special  way  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  experiments,  was  given  an  additional  test 
several  days  after  the  first  one.  Both  tests  were  given  in  the 
padded  cabinet,  with  the  following  list  of  words  for  the  second 
test: 


110  APPENDIX  II 

1.  (read  by  observer):  dynamite,  syllable,  splash,  coffee,  swift, 
lion,  thrash,  bumble-bee,  plaster,  salt. 

2.  (heard    by    observer):  storm,    waltz,    apple-tree,    rain-drops, 
health,  lemonade,  drum,  sea-gull,  donkey,  splinter. 

V.  Unit-accuracy  —  simple  form: 

Task:  To  reproduce  at  once,  as  the  unit  of  a  regular  series  last- 
ing for  fifteen  seconds,  an  interval  given  by  two  clicks  of  the 
sounder  in  connection  with  the  time-sense  machine.  Observer 
to  hold  himself  in  readiness  for  an  interval  of  any  size  between  one 
fifth  of  a  second  and  two  seconds,  adjusting  himself  as  quickly  as 
he  can,  so  that  the  interval  between  the  last  click  of  the  sounder 
and  his  first  tap  shall  be  as  close  as  possible  in  size  to  the  stimulus 
interval  he  is  attempting  to  reproduce.  The  signals  are:  "Close 
your  eyes!"  "Ready!",  "Now!",  and  "Stop!". 

1.  Preliminary:  E  (experimenter)  produces  rough  .2  sec.  interval 
by  moving  bar  across  one  of  the  contacts  twice.     0  (observer) 
begins  at  once  to  tap  on  key  till  E  says  "Stop! " 

2.  Preliminary:  E  produces  rough  2  sec.  interval.    O  reproduces 
in  the  form  of  a  series,  according  to  directions. 

3.  Regular:  O  is  instructed  to  be  prepared  for  any  length  of  inter- 
val between  the  limits  assigned.    Immediately  after  "Now!" 
sounder  connected  with  time-sense  machine  produces  .2  sec. 
interval  as  the  standard.    O  taps  series  for  fifteen  seconds. 

4.  Regular:  Time-sense  machine  (tsm)  produces  .7  sec.  as  a  stand- 
ard.   O  taps  series. 

(The  apparatus  is  provided  with  a  switch,  cutting  off  the  sounder 
from  the  mercury  contacts  until  the  revolving  bar  has  attained  its 
normal  speed.) 

VI.  Subjective  rhythm:  (metronome  in  padded  box) 

1.   Involuntary: 

(a)  No  suggestion: 

Instruction:  "You  are  going  to  hear  a  series  of  sounds  for 
about  forty-five  seconds.  When  it  is  over  you  are  to  dictate  a 
brief  account  of  your  state  of  consciousness  during  the  series 
—  what  you  hear,  how  it  affects  you,  etc." 

Signals:  "Close  your  eyes!",  "Ready!",  "Now!",  "All- 
right!". 

Metronome  at  .3  sec.  (approx.)  for  forty-five  seconds. 

O  dictates  introspection. 
(6)  With  suggestion  of  grouping  idea: 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE  111 

Instruction:  "Describe  as  exactly  as  you  can  the  relative 
duration  and  intensity  of  the  sounds  you  are  about  to  hear. 
Notice  whether  the  series  appears  to  be  a  succession  of  per- 
fectly even  sounds,  or  whether  any  particular  form  of  grouping 
is  evident." 

(1)  Metronome  at  .8  sec.  (approx.)  for  forty-five  seconds. 
O  dictates  introspection. 

(2)  Metronome  at  .3  sec.  (approx.)  for  forty-five  seconds. 
O  dictates  introspection. 

2.    Voluntary: 

Metronome  at  .3  sec.  O  to  close  eyes  and  raise  finger  as 
soon  as  he  has  clearly  established  (by  imposition)  the  follow- 
ing groupings: 
(a)  3's 
(5)  5's 

(O's  No.  1,  2,  and  3  were  also  tested  for  2's,  7's,  and  ll's 
in  voluntary  rhythm  and  for  additional  rates  of  .5  sec.  and  .8 
sec.  for  involuntary  rhythm.) 

VII.  Acceleration  experiment  (test  for  "swing"):  (tsm,  kymo,  metr) 

Task:  To  hear  a  series  of  regular  intervals  given  by  a  metronome 
(at  .7  sec.)  until  a  subordinate  second  beat  has  been  felt  (subjec- 
tively) between  every  two  beats  of  the  metronome.  If  O  finds 
this  difficult  he  is  asked  to  say  to  himself  the  word  "Top"  (with 
distinct  enunciation  of  the  final  consonant)  each  time  he  hears 
the  click  of  the  metronome.  The  letter  "p"  thus  marks  the  sec- 
ondary beat  required.  As  soon  as  this  transformation  of  the  beats 
of  the  metronome  into  a  series  of  subjective  bars  or  groups  of 
two  is  either  attained  or  found  to  be  impossible,  the  experiment 
proceeds  at  once. 

O  is  to  hear  from  the  tsm  sounder  a  series  of  six  intervals, 
marked  by  seven  clicks.  He  understands  that  the  first  of  these 
intervals  is  the  same  which  he  has  been  subjectively  cutting  in 
two  during  the  beats  of  the  metronome.  He  also  understands 
that  the  succeeding  five  intervals  are  faster  or  slower  variations 
of  the  standard  interval,  and  that  it  is  his  task  to  catch  the  pro- 
gression in  speed,  whether  positive  or  negative,  and  reproduce  it 
by  a  series  of  seven  taps  upon  the  key  connected  with  the  kymo- 
graph. He  has  been  told  the  reason  for  imaging  a  secondary  after- 
beat  for  each  click;  i.e.,  the  after-beat  is  to  prevent  him  from 
instinctively  regarding  the  series  of  six  intervals  as  a  rhythmic 
group  of  long  and  short  intervals  bearing  relations  of  simple 


112  APPENDIX  II 

proportion  to  each  other,  instead  of  as  a  series  of  accelerating  and 
retarding  values  of  the  standard  interval.  The  need  of  these 
precautions  was  determined  by  preliminary  experiments. 

After  E  is  convinced,  by  signals  or  otherwise,  that  O  is  able  to 
regard  the  metronome  series  as  a  succession  of  bars  or  that  the 
achievement  is  in  his  particular  case  an  impossibility  (which  did 
not  occur  in  the  course  of  the  experiments),  the  metronome  is 
stopped,  and  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  seconds,  the  time-sense 
machine  produces  the  series  of  six  intervals,  arranged  according 
to  the  following  progression:  .7  sec.,  .6  sec.,  .5  sec.,  .5  sec.,  .6  sec.,  .7 
sec.,  —  in  other  words,  an  acceleration  of  the  standard  interval  up 
to  a  momentary  level  of  .5  sec.,  followed  by  a  retardation  back  to 
the  standard  interval.  This  series  is  given  by  tsm  three  times, 
with  an  interval  of  about  four  seconds  between.  After  the  third 
time,  O  first  images  what  he  has  just  heard,  then  taps  upon  his 
key,  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  a  reproduction  of  the  six  intervals. 

Immediately  after  this,  O  announces  "a"  or  "b"  degree  of 
confidence  in  having  expressed  his  feeling  of  the  swing  of  R  (the 
series  of  intervals  as  given  by  tsm).  Eight  such  reproductions  are 
recorded,  after  every  two  of  which  O  chooses  one  as  the  "better" 
of  the  two,  or  at  any  rate  his  "choice"  for  purposes  of  measure- 
ment. 

E's  procedure  in  measurement  is  determined  as  follows:  In 
any  case,  only  the  four  reproductions  judged  as  "better"  are  to 
be  measured,  and  the  two  most  approximately  accurate,  selected 
for  the  later  continuation  of  the  experiment;  but  precedence  is 
given  in  this  choice  to  those  of  the  four  "better"  reproductions 
which  are  also  marked  with  an  "a"  (degree  of  confidence).  If 
three  or  more  "a's"  occur,  the  two  most  accurate  are  taken;  if 
only  two  "a's"  occur  they  are  taken,  irrespective  of  measurement; 
otherwise,  the  one  "a"  that  occurs  and  the  most  accurate  "b," 
or,  if  no  "a's"  occur,  the  two  most  accurate  "b's."  The  two  re- 
productions thus  selected  are  kept,  after  being  measured,  for 
the  second  day,  when  O  is  given  a  chance  to  hear  them  reproduced 
by  tsm  and  to  compare  them  with  the  original  series  in  both 
orders  of  tune,  according  to  the  suggestion  derived  from  Muller's 
Methodik.1 

The  acceleration  experiment  (first  day)  is  concluded  as  follows: 
Tsm  gives  R  again  three  times.  At  every  click  of  the  machine 
O  murmurs  "Top"  aloud,  adjusting  his  "top's"  as  well  as  he  can 


Miiller,  op.  cit.  p.  205. 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE         113 

to  the  clicks  of  the  sounder,  with  the  attempt  to  utter  the  final 
"p"  each  time  as  a  secondary  beat  between  the  clicks.  After  he 
has  thus  accompanied  R  three  times,  he  records  as  before  his 
memory  of  R,  uttering  "top"  again  each  time  that  he  taps  his 
key.  Finally,  he  is  told  to  keep  R  in  mind  for  future  experiment. 

Schedule  syncopation:  (metr  and  kymo) 

O  listens  to  metr  at  .5  sec.  interval  for  ten  seconds;  then,  after 
the  regular  signals,  taps  according  to  schedule,  omitting  a  tap 
where  the  schedule  contains  a  zero,  and  substituting  for  it  a  sub- 
jective beat,  in  such  a  way  as  to  approximate  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible to  the  standard  interval,  as  given  by  the  metronome,  in  the 
execution  of  his  recorded  taps  and  the  subjective  beats  inter- 
polated. 

1.  Preliminary:  0   taps  0"0  OO'O  O'OO  '00',  etc.   (repeated)  for 
twenty  seconds. 

2.  Regular:  O  taps  same  schedule  for  twenty  seconds. 

IX.  Complex  coordination,  involving  unit  accuracy:  (metr,  kymo,  foot- 

key) 

O  to  accompany  metr  at  .5  sec.  and  follow  schedule. 
RF  =  right  foot  rf  =  right  finger 

LF  -  left  foot  If  =  left  finger 

"Ta"  and  "clo"  are  to  be  uttered  where  they  occur  in  the 
schedule,  and  taps  by  feet  or  fingers  omitted.  Time  is  given  for 
O  to  understand  schedule  thoroughly,  then  metronome  is  started, 
and  after  the  usual  signals  from  E,  O  begins. 

1.  Preliminary:  O  accompanies  metr  according  to  the  following 
schedule:    RF  rf  If  "ta,"   LF   rf   If   "clo,"   etc.    (repeated) 
for  twenty  seconds. 

2.  Regular:  O  follows  same  schedule  for  twenty  seconds. 

X.  Walking-rate,  etc.  (rough): 

O  is  asked  to  walk  up  and  down  the  main  hall  of  the  building 
until  he  has  attained  what  he  considers  a  normal,  comfortable 
walking  gait,  such  as  he  would  fall  into  if  he  were  walking  for 
pleasure.  He  is  to  keep  up  this  gait,  as  far  as  he  is  able,  when  he 
reenters  the  laboratory,  where  his  rate  is  measured  by  E  with  a 
stop-watch,  according  to  the  number  of  steps  he  takes  within 
thirty  seconds. 

Similarly,  O  is  asked  to  nod  with  his  head,  tap  with  his  finger, 
sway  with  his  hips  from  side  to  side  as  he  stands  erect,  and  fi- 
nally to  utter  the  syllable  "ta,"  at  what  he  considers  comfortable 


114  APPENDIX  II 

rates,  such  as  he  would  find  easy  to  keep  up  for  some  time.  Each 
of  the  rates  is  determined  by  counting  the  number  of  movements 
made  within  a  stretch  of  ten  seconds.  O  is  also  asked  to  specify 
which  of  the  above  measured  forms  of  motion  he  prefers.  Longer 
tests  would,  of  course,  be  more  accurate. 

XI.  Pitch  memory  (rough):   (Stern  variator): 

O  hears  a  tone  from  the  variator  at  a  certain  pitch.  It  is  given 
three  times,  with  a  duration  of  about  one  second  and  an  interval 
of  about  one  second.  Then  comes  an  interval  of  about  three 
seconds,  after  which  ten  notes  are  sounded,  three  of  them  at  the 
original  pitch  and  the  rest  above  or  below  it.  O  is  asked  to  iden- 
tify the  position  of  the  notes  corresponding  to  the  original  stimulus 
on  a  blank  schedule  which  is  given  to  him. 

1.  Preliminary:  Instructions  accompanying  schedule: 

"The  following  ten  spaces  correspond  to  the  series  of  ten 
notes  you  will  hear,  after  the  original  R  has  been  given  three 
tunes.  This  original  R  will  occur  altogether  three  times  in 
the  series.  Mark  the  spaces  where  you  think  it  occurs  with 
anR." 

Schedule:      —    —    —    —    —    —    —    —    —    — 

In  giving  R  and  the  subsequent  series  E's  schedule  is  as  follows: 
R  =  240  (given  three  times) 

Series:  241    239    240    242    238    240    237    240    243    239 

2.  Regular:  A  similar  procedure  is  followed  except  that  O  hears 
the  giving  of  the  stimulus  and  the  subsequent  series  repeated 
as  a  whole  three  times.    During  each  time  he  marks  upon  a 
schedule  the  places  where  he  thinks  R  occurs.    A  final  line  of 
ten  blank  spaces  occurs  upon  the  schedule  on  which  he  is  to 
record  his  final  revision  of  judgment,  for  which  he  is  given 
twenty  seconds. 

E's  schedule:  R  =  250 

Series:  247    260    253    260    252    248    250    255     252    248 
O's  No.  1,  2,  and  3  were  also  given  the  following  test  with 
a  broader  range.    R  occurred  once  in  five. 
E's  schedule:  R  =  275. 

Series:  (a)  270  300  280  270  276 
(6)  250  280  276  285  270 
(c)  300  250  285  276  280 

XII.  Harmony  memory,  (rough):  (tunable  reed-organ) 

O  is  to  recognize  where  a  given  chord  occurs  in  a  series  of  ten. 
He  is  supplied  with  schedule  blanks  as  before. 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE  115 

1.  Preliminary:  R  -  c  g  c'  e'  (c  being  middle  c;   c',  the  octave 
above). 

Series:   bgb'e'  c#gc#V  cgc'e'  bg#b'e'  cgc'e'  bg#b'e'  c#gc'e' 
bgb'e'  bg#b'e'  cgc'e' 

2.  Regular:  R=b#d#g#b' 


Series:  bd#gb'  bd#f#b'  bdgb^  begb'  bd#f#b'  begb'  bdgb'  bd#gb' 
bd#f#b'  bdgb' 

Xin.  Vowel-quality  memory,  (rough)  : 

E  chants  vowels  at  low  C.  O  is  to  identify  a  certain  group  of 
vowel  sounds,  containing  five  discrete  members,  as  it  occurs  in  a 
series  of  five  such  groups.  Schedules  are  used  as  before. 

1.  Preliminary:  R  -  ee  ay  ee  oo  oh  (rate  of  about  two  vowels 
per  second,  given  three  times,  1.5  sec.  interval) 

Series:    ee  ee  ay  oh  oo 

oh  ay  ee  oo  oh 

ee  ay  ee  oo  oh 

ee  ay  ee  oh  oo 

oo  ee  ay  oo  oh 

(1.5  sec.  interval  between  groups,   10  seconds  at  end  for 
checking) 

2.  Regular: 

(a)     R  -  ah   ay  ee  oo   oh  (given  three  times) 

Series:    ah  ay  oo  ee  oh 

ay  oo  ee  ay  oo 

ay  ah  oo  ay  oh 

ah  ay  ee  oo  oh 

ay  ah  ee  oh  oo 

(6)    R  -  ay   ee  ay  ah   ee 

Series:    ah  ee  ee  ah  ay 

ah  ee  ay  ah  ee 

ay  ee  ay  ah  ee 

ay  ee  ah  ee  ay 

ah  ee  ay  ah  ee 
(c)    R  -  oo  oh  oh  ah  oo 

Series:    oh  oo  oo  ah  oh 

oo  oh  oh  oo  ah 

oo  ah  oh  oh  oo 

ah  oh  oh  ah  oo 

oo  oh  oh  ah  oo 


116  APPENDIX  II 

(Second  Day) 

XIV.  Choice  of  "swing"  reproductions:  (tsm) 

O's  two  reproductions  selected  from  the  first  day's  measurements 
are  referred  to  as  1  and  2;  the  original  six  intervals,  as  given  by 
the  machine,  are  referred  to  as  R. 

E  sets  contacts  for  R,  then  for  1;  then  for  R  again,  and  then 
for  2.  O  hears  all  four  with  closed  eyes,  being  instructed  to  com- 
pare 1  and  2,  as  he  hears  them  in  this  order,  with  the  original 
stimulus.  An  interval  of  about  thirty  seconds  occurs  between 
every  two  series  of  clicks  that  he  hears. 

E  now  sets  contacts  first  for  1,  and  then  for  R;  then  for  2, 
and  then  for  R  again.  O  makes  a  final  choice  between  1  and  2, 
as  to  which  comes  closer  to  his  feeling  for  the  "swing"  of  R. 

O  is  asked  not  to  practise  for  a  week  his  memory  of  R,  either  by 
tapping  or  with  the  voice,  but  to  be  ready  at  the  expiration  of 
that  time  to  utter,  by  means  of  seven  consecutive  "tops,"  his 
memory  of  it.  This  reproduction,  spoken  in  the  sound-photo- 
graphing cabinet,  will  be  recorded  on  the  film. 

XV.  Intensity  memory  (rough) :  (sound-pendulum) 

O  hears  a  stimulus  intensity,  roughly  produced  by  the  blow  of 
a  pendulum,  weighted  with  a  ball  of  metal  at  the  end,  falling 
through  a  certain  distance  upon  a  piece  of  stationary  metal.  He 
is  then  asked  to  identify  its  triple  recurrence  in  a  series  of  ten 
such  impacts.  Five  degrees  of  intensity  (rough)  are  produced  by 
allowing  the  sound-pendulum  to  fall  from  positions  of  varying 
height.  In  the  present  test,  which  was  meant  to  be  nothing  more 
than  suggestive,  the  pendulum  was  allowed  to  fall  from  these 
five  positions  by  the  right  hand  of  E.  His  left  hand  was  used  to 
catch  the  pendulum  on  its  rebound.  The  sound-pendulum  appara- 
tus was  encased  in  a  box  lined  with  heavy  felt,  in  order  to  prevent 
as  much  reflection  of  sound  as  possible.  O  first  heard  the  five 
intensities  given  in  order,  beginning  with  the  weakest.  After  a 
pause  of  a  few  seconds,  E  gave  the  stimulus  intensity  three  times, 
about  two  seconds  apart.  Then,  after  a  pause  of  about  three 
seconds,  the  series  was  given.  A  soundless  pendulum  was  in 
sight  of  E,  to  assist  in  determining  the  pauses.  The  sounds  in  the 
series  were  given  about  two  seconds  apart.  The  following  is 
E's  schedule,  in  which  1  represents  the  weakest  intensity;  5,  the 
strongest. 

Stimulus  or  standard  intensity:  3  (given  three  times) 
Series:  4253432135 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE  117 

XVI.    Drum-beat  rhythm  of  texts: 

Three  sentences,  marked  A,  B,  and  C,  were  used  in  this  ex- 
periment: 

A.  De  Quincey,  "Our  Lady  of  Darkness,"  from  Confessions  of 

an  English  Opium-Eater,  Masson's  edition  of  De  Quincey's 
works,  London,  1890,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  368: 

"For  she  can  approach  only  those  in  whom  a  profound 
nature  has  been  upheaved  by  central  convulsions;  in  whom 
the  heart  trembles  and  the  brain  rocks  under  conspiracies  of 
tempest  from  without  and  tempest  from  within." 

B.  Newman,  "Grammar  of  Assent,"  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co., 

1909,  p.  78: 

"Then  he  comes  to  understand  how  it  is  that  lines,  the 
birth  of  some  chance  morning  or  evening  at  an  Ionian  festi- 
val, or  among  the  Sabine  hills,  have  lasted  generation  after 
generation,  for  thousands  of  years  with  a  power  over  the  mind, 
and  a  charm  which  the  current  literature  of  his  own  day, 
with  all  its  obvious  advantages,  is  utterly  unable  to  rival." 

C.  Pater,  "Leonardo  da  Vinci,"    from    The  Renaissance,  Mac- 

Millan's  ed.,  London,  1914,  p.  110: 

"He  who  thus  penetrated  into  the  most  secret  parts  of 
nature  preferred  always  the  more  to  the  less  remote,  what, 
seeming  exceptional,  was  an  instance  of  law  more  refined,  the 
construction  about  things  of  a  peculiar  atmosphere  and 
mixed  lights." 

E  gives  the  three  sentences  to  O  with  a  word  or  two  of  expla- 
nation of  the  connection  in  which  they  were  written,  but  with  no 
information  as  to  the  author  or  the  name  of  the  essay  or  book  in 
which  they  occur.  O  glances  over  A,  B,  and  C,  and  dictates  a 
brief  account  of  what  he  considers  to  be  the  quality  of  each  with 
regard  to  mood  (as  stormy,  calm,  solemn,  gay,  poetic,  matter-of- 
fact,  etc.);  thought  (simple,  complex,  etc.);  and,  finally,  vowel 
and  consonant  color  (dark,  light,  or  mixed;  smooth,  rugged,  or 
mixed;  etc.). 

O  then  beats  on  the  phosphor-bronze  drum  (not  more  than 
three  times)  the  syllabic  rhythm  of  A,  B,  and  C,  as  he  reads  them 
to  himself.  After  the  first  drum-beating  he  is  to  pass  judgment  on 
his  own  performance,  so  that,  as  far  as  possible  he  may  be  able 
to  answer  the  following  questions:  How  would  the  series  of  drum- 
beats you  have  just  performed  affect  you,  if  you  heard  someone 
else  beating  it  upon  a  drum,  and  had  no  idea  of  its  being  connected 
with  a  passage  of  prose?  If  it  would  interest  you,  can  you  say 


118  APPENDIX  II 

why?    If  not,  can  you  say  why?    Does  your  drum-beating  fall 
into  parts?    If  so,  are  they  related? 

O  then  grades  A,  B,  and  C,  with  units  (3  =  high,  2  =  moderate, 
1  -  low)  in  respect  to  three  different  qualities: 

1.  Fitness  of  form  (rhythm  and  tone-color)  with  regard  to  con- 
tent (mood  and  thought); 

2.  Ease  and  spontaneity  of  rhythmic  flow; 

3.  Complexity  of  thought  and  mood  problem  (O  is  to  grade  as 
"low"  a  sentence  in  which  it  would  appear  to  be  an  easy  task 
to  find  fitting  rhythm  for  the  underlying  thought  and  feeling, 
if  one  were  the  author). 

O  then  adds  a  grade  of  3,  2,  or  1  (in  this  case  units  of  rela- 
tive order),  with  respect  to  the  pleasure  he  derives  from  the 
drum-beat  rhythm  of  each  of  the  sentences. 

XVII.  "  Possibility  "  scanning: 

O's  No.  1,  2,  and  3  were  the  only  ones  that  took  part  in  this 
experiment.  They  were  asked  to  scan  texts  A,  B,  and  C  of  the 
previous  experiment  upon  the  following  basis: 

Each  syllable  and  pause,  felt  as  such,  is  to  be  marked  with 
units  (3  =  high,  2  =  moderate,  1  =  low)  of  "possible"  intensity, 
"possible"  pitch,  "possible"  duration,  and  "possible"  additional 
weight  or  interest,  due  either  to  thought  and  mood  or  to  details 
of  tone-color,  etc.  "Possible"  is  understood  to  mean  also  "prob- 
able" —  that  is,  it  includes  the  degrees  of  these  four  qualities 
which  the  observer  can  easily  imagine  himself  as  attaining  under 
different  moods.  The  object  of  this  experiment  is  to  determine 
the  safety  or  danger  of  announcing  any  one  scanning  of  a  passage 
as  an  indication  of  its  final  "rhythmic"  value. 

(Third  Day,  one  week  after  Second  Day) 

XVIII.  Pulse  consciousness: 

O  'sits  in  the  dark,  inside  of  the  padded  cabinet,  in  a  relaxed 
position.  At  a  signal  from  E,  there  begins  a  stretch  of  forty  sec- 
onds, at  the  end  of  which  O  is  to  report  whether  he  was  conscious 
at  all  of  his  heart-beats  or  of  pulse-beats  in  any  part  of  his  body. 

XIX.  Breath-segments: 

O  is  now  asked  the  following  question:  "Do  you  ever  think  of 
your  breath  as  divided  into  parts  in  any  way?" 

O  is  asked  to  breathe  for  thirty  seconds  and  report  again.  He 
is  then  asked  more  definitely  if  he  thinks  of  his  inspirations  as 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE         119 

bearing  a  simple  mathematical  relation   to  his  expirations,  or, 
rather,  as  bearing  a  vague  relation  to  each  other. 

XX.  Photograph  of  seven-day-memory  reproduction  of  acceleration 
series: 

O  is  reminded  that  the  stimulus  consisted  of  seven  clicks,  in- 
volving acceleration  and  retarding.  They  are  to  be  reproduced, 
in  as  exact  a  manner  as  possible,  by  uttering  the  word  "top" 
seven  times.  The  final  consonant  in  "top"  is  to  be  pronounced 
distinctly  so  as  to  cut  the  intervals  approximately  in  hah".  O  is 
to  hear,  for  about  ten  seconds,  a  metronome  beating  regularly  the 
first  interval  of  the  series.  He  has  no  information  except  his 
memory  as  to  the  extent  of  acceleration  and  retarding  to  which 
this  interval  was  subjected  in  the  original  series.  He  first  makes  a 
preliminary  trial,  after  which  his  next  reproduction  is  regularly 
photographed. 

XXI.  Judgment  and  line-division: 

O  is  given  a  card  on  which  are  drawn  three  lines,  60  mm.  in 
length.  The  first  two  are  for  practice;  upon  the  third,  O  is  to 
indicate  a  division  of  the  space  into  six  intervals,  corresponding 
in  their  relations  to  the  intervals  in  the  standard  acceleration 
series.  He  is  then  asked  to  report  his  judgment  as  to  the  general 
relations  which  these  intervals  bear  to  each  other:  a  is  greater 
than  b,  b  is  greater  than  c,  c  is  equal  to  d,  etc. 

(Fourth  Day) 

XXII.  Simple  syncopation: 

Six  of  the  mercury  contacts  of  the  time-sense  machine  are  set 
at  a  distance  of  60  degrees  from  each  other,  so  that  a  continuous 
series  of  clicks  from  the  sounder  are  produced  at  an  interval  of 
.66  sec.  These  successive  clicks  are  recorded  upon  the  smoked 
drum.  Any  clicks  made  by  O,  when  he  taps  upon  his  key,  are 
recorded  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  first.  In  this  way,  when  the 
lines  are  viewed  horizontally,  O's  record  is  directly  under  that  of 
the  standard  clicks. 

O  is  instructed  to  begin  tapping,  after  the  signal  "now,"  just 
halfway  between  the  taps  of  the  sounder,  and  continue  this  form 
of  syncopation  until  he  hears  (after  fifteen  seconds)  the  signal  for 
stopping.  His  task  is,  of  course,  to  tap  just  .33  sec.  after  each  tap 
of  the  sounder;  so  his  individual  taps  are  measured  from  a  point 
on  his  record-line  directly  under  a  tap-record  on  the  standard 
line,  and  rated  according  to  how  they  correspond  to  the  distance 


120  APPENDIX  II 

on  the  drum  representing  .33  sec.  In  this  way,  his  first  ten  taps 
are  taken;  their  distances  from  the  measuring  points  just  de- 
scribed, averaged;  and  thus  their  Gross  Constant  Error  and  Aver- 
age Variable  Error,  determined.  One  preliminary  test  is  given. 

XXIII.  Reaction  to  five's  and  seven's: 

E  watches  soundless  pendulum  marking  seconds,  and  taps 
groups  of  five's  on  the  phosphor-bronze  drum  at  the  rate  of  five 
taps  to  two  swings  of  the  pendulum.  The  first  tap  of  each  group 
is  accented.  Similar  procedure  for  seven's. 

Instruction:  "Listen  to  the  following  series  of  sounds,  and  raise 
your  finger  when  you  have  clearly  established  the  nature  of  what- 
ever motor  reaction,  if  any,  they  produce.  Note  also,  as  carefully 
as  you  can  after  this,  whatever  phenomena  of  muscle  tension  and 
breath  affection,  if  any,  occur.  This  done,  begin  to  inhibit  as  far 
as  you  are  able  the  motor  reaction  instituted,  so  that  later  you 
may  be  able  to  grade  it  as  3,  2,  or  1,  with  respect  to  difficulty  hi 
inhibiting.  You  will  have  about  fifteen  seconds  for  this  after 
raising  your  finger." 

XXIV.  Complex  syncopation  (involving  regulated  practice) : 

The  task  is  for  O  to  tap  groups  of  five's  on  his  key,  while  the 
tune-sense  machine  is  clicking  seven's.  The  contacts  are  set  as 
for  simple  syncopation  —  so  that  the  clicks  will  be  .66  sec.  apart. 
The  experiment  is  divided  into  six  stages: 

1.  At  every  seventh  click  of  the  sounder  E  says  "One!".     At 
E's  third  "One!".     O  is  to  begin  quite  roughly,  tapping,  as 
well  as  he  can,  five  equal  taps  between  E's  "One's. "    He  is  thus 
tapping  five  against  seven.    This  continues  for  ten  seconds. 

2.  E  now  taps  upon  the  phosphor-bronze  drum  an  approxima- 
tion of  the  way  the  two  sets  of  clicks  should  sound  when  played 
together.     In  order  to  do  this,  E  has  practised  the  task  for 
several  months,  until  he  is  able  to  do  it  in  more  or  less  of  an 
automatic  fashion.     As  he  taps  this  "rhythmic  tune"  upon 
the  drum,  he  counts  aloud  as  follows,  giving  numbers  for  the 
seven's  and  saying  "and"  for  the  five's  (on  "one,"  of  course, 
the  two  coincide): 

"One,  two-and,  three,  and-four,  five-and,  six,  and-seven." 
The  "and"  between  two  and  three  is  closer  to  two  than  it  is 
to  three  and  so,  the  "and"  between  six  and  seven  is  closer  to 
seven;  but  the  "and's"  just  before  four  and  just  after  five  are 
exactly  twice  as  close  to  their  respective  numbers  as  the  first 
pair. 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE         121 

O  now  taps  his  five's  as  before,  but  counts  aloud  as  he  taps, 
uttering  numbers  for  the  taps  of  the  machine  and  saying  "and" 
for  his  own  taps.  E  still  marks  off  every  seventh  click  of  the 
machine  by  saying  "One!",  O  having  begun  upon  his  third 
"One!". 

3.  E  now  explains  a  black  and  white  chart  hanging  on  the  wall, 
which  is  meant  to  indicate  the  effect  (in  terms  of  space,  mathe- 
matically divided),  of  superimposing  five  intervals  upon  seven. 
E  counts  as  before,  following  with  a  pointer  the  spaces  on  the 
chart.    He  odds,  however,  a  simple  humming  tune  to  the  count- 
ing, so  that  two  bars  of  the  five-seven  syncopation  form  an  easily 
remembered  melody.    O  is  asked  to  do  likewise,  accompanying 
E,  until  the  two-bar  melody  has  been  hummed  three  times.    O 
is  also  asked  to  tap  with  his  left  hand  for  the  seven's,  and  with 
his  right  on  a  dead  key  for  the  five's. 

4.  O  is  now  instructed  to  be  ready  for  another  trial,  the  results 
of  which  are  to  be  recorded  on  the  drum.    E  hums,  counts, 
and  beats  with  a  pointer  the  rhythmic  melody  once  more,  and 
then  starts  the  serial  clicks  of  the  time-sense  machine.     O  is 
expected  to  begin  as  soon  as  he  is  comfortably  ready,  and  to 
tap  five's  to  the  machine's  seven's,  counting  and  humming  the 
rhythmic  tune.     E  no  longer  marks  off  the  groups.     This  is 
accomplished  by  O's  first  tap,  which  starts  the  syncopating 
group. 

O  is  to  continue  his  syncopation  until  stopped  by  signal 
from  E  at  the  end  of  fifteen  seconds.  In  the  meantime,  O  is 
expected  to  tap  off  the  clicks  of  the  machine  with  his  left  finger 
on  the  table,  while  he  makes  recorded  taps  of  five's,  with  his 
right.  He  is  no  longer  expected  to  think  of  himself  as  tapping 
five's  against  seven's,  but  as  tapping  the  tune  he  has  heard, 
with  the  accents  (numbers)  assigned  to  his  left  hand  and  the 
unaccented  "and's"  to  his  right.  Both,  of  course,  come  down 
together  on  "One." 

5.  O  is  now  instructed  to  watch  E,  and,  in  at  least  an  incipient 
form,  imitate  everything  he  does.     E  then,  as  he  hums  the 
rhythmic  melody,  taps  the  seven's  with  his  left  index-finger 
and  the  five's  with  his  right;   and  follows  this  with  a  perform- 
ance in  which  all  the  fingers  of  both  hands  are  used.     There- 
upon he  performs  a  sort  of  rhythmic  step,  divided  into  two 
phrases  of  seven,  at  the  same  time  that  he  executes  with  his 
arms  two  phrases  of  five.    While  he  is  doing  this,  O  is  asked  to 
place  his  hands  upon  his  knees,  and  beat  five's  while  he  taps 


122  APPENDIX  II 

seven's  with  his  feet.     No  record  is  kept  of  these  tentative 
performances. 

O  then  prepares  for  another  trial  at  tapping  on  his  key. 
After  the  machine  is  in  motion,  he  is  to  begin  as  before,  at  a 
comfortable  moment,  humming  the  rhythmic  tune  while  he 
taps.  This  lasts  for  fifteen  seconds. 

6.  O  makes  his  last  record,  but  this  time  with  his  eyes  closed,  and 
without  humming  aloud.  This  record  is  the  one  according  to 
which  he  is  graded.  The  correct  length  of  interval  (.936  sec.) 
for  a  fifth  of  the  time  covered  by  seven  clicks  of  the  machine, 
is  taken  as  the  standard  which  he  is  to  approach.  Accordingly, 
the  average  of  his  first  five  intervals  is  estimated,  and  the  GCE 
and  AVE  determined.  Certain  slight  variations  occurred  in 
the  procedure  as  applied  to  O's  No.  3,  4,  10,  and  12,  but  not 
enough  to  vitiate  the  results. 

XXV.  Individual  "swing": 

O  is  expected  to  tap  the  marked  centroids  in  the  following 
arrangement  of  words: 

******  * 

"Prose  is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  while  poetry 

*  *  *        *  *  * 

is  opposed  to  prose,  prose-poetry  is  opposed  to  any  poetry  that 

*  * 

may  be  composed  in  any  other  way  than  that  of  prose." 

Instruction:  "Read  the  following  arrangement  of  words  in 
what  you  consider  a  perfectly  natural  manner  —  '  letting  yourself 
go'  as  much  as  possible.  Tap  only  when  you  utter  the  o-sounds 
marked  with  an  asterisk  above  them."  O  is  expected  to  practise 
the  task  until  he  feels  able  to  carry  out  the  above  with  ease.  The 
record  of  his  tapping  is  made  upon  the  smoked  drum. 

XXVI.  Musical  "  swing  " : 

O  is  asked  to  tap  upon  the  kymograph  key,  while  he  hums  to 
himself  the  first  few  bars  of  "My  Country  'tis  of  thee."  The  taps 
are  to  represent,  as  far  as  possible,  what  0  considers  his  natural 
rendering  of  the  time-relations  of  the  melody. 

XXVH.  Phonograph  test: 

After  most  of  the  results  of  the  previous  tests  had  been  deter- 
mined, O  No.  1,  whose  rank  in  the  tests  was  fairly  high,  was  chosen 
to  make  drum-beat  records  on  the  phonograph  for  the  rest  of  the 
observers  to  pass  judgment  upon.  Records  were  made,  accordingly, 
from  five  different  sources  and  presented  to  the  other  observers 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE         123 

in  the  form  of  a  series,  which  they  heard  reproduced  from  the 
phonograph.  Two  short  passages  of  prose,  one  of  regular  music, 
one  of  haphazard  word  arrangement,  and  one  of  haphazard  musical 
notes,  were  tapped  by  O  No.  1  upon  the  phosphor-bronze  drum, 
as  a  source  for  the  five  records. 

First  in  the  series  was  the  following  passage  from  Walter  Pater 
(op.  cit.  p.  Ill): 

"It  is  the  landscape,  not  of  dreams  or  of  fancy,  but  of  places 
far  withdrawn,  and  hours  selected  from  a  thousand  with  a  miracle 
of  finesse." 

Second  in  the  series  was  the  passage  of  about  six  bars  from 
Chopin,  Nocturne,  Op.  37,  No.  1. 

Third:  part  of  a  sentence  from  Henry  James,  Preface  to  The 
Golden  Bowl,  p.  xxiv: 

"For  I  have  nowhere  found  vindicated  the  queer  thesis  that  the 
right  values  of  interesting  prose  depend  all  on  withheld  tests." 

Fourth:  a  haphazard  arrangement  of  seventeen  words  chosen 
in  the  following  manner:  Every  other  word  in  the  first  paragraph 
of  Seashore's  description  of  the  Tonoscope  (University  of  Iowa 
Studies  in  Psychology,  No.  VI)  was  written  upon  a  separate  slip 
of  paper,  and  the  slips  thoroughly  shuffled.  Twenty  slips  were 
drawn  by  a  person  with  closed  eyes,  and  the  words  arranged  in  the 
order  of  drawing.  Three  words  at  the  end  were  then  dropped, 
in  order  to  bring  the  time  of  reading  of  the  series  into  closer  approxi- 
mation of  equality  with  the  time  required  to  read  the  regular 
prose  sentences.  The  result  was  as  follows: 

"Instruments  description  the  from  crude  now  psychology  un- 
touched essential  described  a  the  in  fact  pleasure  instruments 
manipulation." 

Fifth:  a  haphazard  arrangement  of  musical  notes,  chosen  by  a 
blindfolded  person  from  144  possibilities  (permutations  and  com- 
binations of  long  and  short  notes  and  long  and  short  rests). 


None  of  the  observers  were  given  any  sort  of  information  as 
to  what  sources  had  been  employed  in  obtaining  the  five  records. 
The  instructions  were  as  follows: 

"Listen,  without  screwing  up  your  attention  too  much,  to  the 
following  five  series  of  drum-beats.  Keep  yourself  in  a  partly 
relaxed  condition,  in  order  to  respond  as  freely  as  possible  to  any 
effect  they  may  have  upon  you.  Be  prepared  to  grade  the  five 


124  APPENDIX  II 

series  in  relative  order  of  merit  as  pleasing.    You  will  then  grade 
them  again  as  'elusive'  or  puzzling." 

After  O  hears  the  reproduction  of  the  series  upon  the  phono- 
graph, the  grades  are  recorded  upon  a  schedule  blank  provided. 
The  five  sets  of  taps,  of  course,  simply  represent  O  No.  1's  inter- 
pretation of  the  tasks  assigned.  E  had  given  O  No.  1  five 
schedules  to  follow  in  the  order  prescribed,  with  the  instruction  to 
tap,  in  a  perfectly  natural  manner,  the  duration  and  intensity  of 
the  notes  and  syllables  as  felt.  According  to  these  instructions, 
for  instance,  the  word  "hours"  was  tapped  as  two  syllables. 

After  this  first  hearing  of  the  series  and  after  the  recording  of 
the  grades  O  is  asked:  "Did  it  occur  to  you  while  listening  to  any 
one  of  the  series  to  beat  time  to  it  (by  nodding,  tapping,  etc.), 
in  other  words,  to  respond  to  it  with  any  form  of  regular  motor 
accompaniment?  Did  the  idea  of  syncopation  occur  to  you?" 

Before  the  second  hearing  of  the  series,  O  is  instructed  as  follows: 
"See  if  you  can  beat  strict  time,  with  a  degree  of  satisfaction,  to 
any  of  the  series.  Be  prepared  to  grade  the  five  with  units  (3,  2, 
or  1)  for  ease  and  satisfaction  in  this  respect."  At  the  end  of  the 
phonograph  reproduction,  O  is  asked  if  he  felt  any  effects  of 
syncopation. 

Before  the  third  hearing  of  the  drum-beats,  the  instructions 
are:  "Keep  the  possibilities  of  syncopation  in  mind,  and  see  also 
if  there  are  any  of  the  five  arrangements  of  sounds  to  which  you 
can,  with  a  degree  of  satisfaction,  beat  a  less  strict  time-unit  — 
that  is,  one  which  accelerates  or  retards  within  the  limits  of  what 
strikes  you  as  merely  an  appropriate  adjustment,  with  just  such 
liberty  as  you  could  enjoy  in  regular  music." 

Schedules  are  provided  on  which  O  grades  the  five  series,  aa 
directed. 

Before  the  fourth  hearing,  O  is  told  that  regular  prose  is  the 
source  of  two  of  the  series  of  drum-beats;  regular  music,  hap- 
hazard words,  and  haphazard  music,  the  sources  of  the  other 
three.  He  is  asked  to  mark  upon  a  schedule  provided,  his  judg- 
ment as  to  which  is  which.  He  is  also  to  grade  each  judgment 
with  "a,"  "b,"  or  "c"  degree  of  certainty.  After  that  he  is  once 
more  to  grade  the  five  in  relative  order:  first,  as  pleasing;  and 
second,  as  elusive. 
XXVIII.  Questionnaire: 

1.  Do  you  clearly  understand  the  possibilities  of  syncopation  in 
connection  with  motor  response  to  a  series  of  drum-beats? 
(E  explains  the  subject,  in  case  of  a  negative  response.) 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE  125 

2.  Do  you  enjoy  its  introduction,  or  do  you  usually  resent  it? 

3.  Do  you  understand  the  possibilities  of  acceleration  and  re- 
tarding?    Describe  their  effect  upon  you  in  the   "swing" 
experiment. 

4.  Would  a  certain  amount  of  acceleration  or  retarding  in  a 
series  of  drum-beats  add  any  possible  interest  to  the  series? 
Could  you  think  of  its  adding  great  interest? 

5.  Do  you  take  pleasure  at  all  in  the  idea  of  making  equivalences 
or  substitutions  rather  than  simple  balancings  of  two  equal 
masses  against  each  other?    Does  the  idea  of  weighing  a  pound 
of  lead,  small  in  size,  against  a  pound  of  feathers,  large  in  size, 
interest  you  aesthetically? 

6.  What  sort  of  motor  response  would  you  most  enjoy  making  to 
a  series  of  sounds  that  impressed  you  as  in  any  way  rhythmical? 
Would  the  response  be  segregated  or  serial? 

7.  If  a  series  possessed  merely  an  elusive  charm,  hard  to  analyze, 
just  how  can  you  imagine  yourself  as  responding? 

8.  Can  you  imagine  yourself  as  taking  pleasure  at  all  in  a  series 
of  "unitary"  pulses  (not  grouped  into  two's  and  three's,  etc.)? 

9.  If  each  of  these  pulse  intervals  were  filled  in  with  varying 
numbers  of  smaller  intervals,   without   blurring   the   larger, 
dominant  pulses,  would  it  add  interest  or  detract? 

XXIX.  Schedule  tests 

A.   Drum-beat  series  No.  5: 

O  listens  again  to  phonograph  reproduction  of  drum-beat 
series  No.  5  (haphazard  music),  and  states  its  effect  upon  him 
(pleasant,  unpleasant,  or  indifferent).  O  has  not  yet  been 
told  in  any  way  that  it  is  haphazard  music. 

E  now  gives  O  a  schedule,  recording  one  of  E's  own  forms  of 
organization  of  this  objectively  irregular  series: 

Schedule  I:2  000'    "000000   O'O'  00 '0   'O'O    O'OO    '0" 
*000    *000   *000    *000    *000    *000    *000    *000 

This  is  a  way  of  counting  four-time  (rapidly)  to  the  series. 
The  lower  line  represents  the  counts,  and  the  upper  line  the 
way  in  which  the  beats  in  the  record  can  be  regarded  as  falling 
into  the  system.  Each  beat  is  marked  by  an  accent.  Three 
chief  accents  are  also  indicated. 

E  explains  the  schedule,  then  taps  it  on  the  phosphor-bronze 
drum,  humming  a  simple  tune  as  he  taps.  This  is  done  three 

1  The  schedule  actually  employed  was  very  slightly  different,  but 
was  not  quite  so  clear  as  the  above.    The  difference  is  unessential. 


126 


APPENDIX  II 


B. 


times.  O  listens  to  the  phonograph  reproduction,  and  attempts 
to  fit  the  schedule  to  the  beats,  with  his  own  motor  response 
as  a  test  of  his  success.  He  next  reports  to  what  extent  his 
interest  in  the  record  has  been  affected  by  using  the  schedule. 
He  also  reports  upon  the  effect  of  E's  having  hummed  the  tune. 

Schedule  II:  00'  "0  000  "'  '" 

*00  *00  *00  *00  *00        *00 
(fast)        (slower)      (faster) 

E  explains,  beats  on  drum,  and  hums  tune  as  before,  three 
times.    Then  O  listens  to  the  record  again,  and  reports  on  the 
effect  of  this  schedule  upon  his  interest.     The  two  schedules 
are  then  graded,  in  relative  order  of  merit,  in  this  respect. 
Drum-beat  series  No.  1  : 

O  listens  to  record  No.  1  (Walter  Pater),  without  being  told 
its  origin,  states  his  interest,  and  then  receives  schedules, 
which  he  employs,  as  with  record  No.  5. 

Schedule  I: 


accel. 


rit. 


•  •    •  •  -» — *-£• 

LJ  a \\'     t 

*  o     o        #      o  o 

occeZ. 


yar  g  c 


0     0 

rit. 


•  1  •  • 


37^-=- 


.  a 

o        o  *     o   o        *      o 

Schedule  II: 

accel.  rit. 

A  _      A~~ 


/     ^ 
o    o 


•   •   •_•  -V — 1   •_•    f  •  1   •  • 

LJ  af  i/      tf  a      a^ 


#00 


f^Tt 


*       0 


*     o    o 
accel. 

A 


2 

8  * 


hb'&kU"  5  J 


*        0 


FIGURE  1.    Rhythmic  Schedules  used  in  connection  with  the  sentence 
from  Walter  Pater 

O  grades  the  schedules,  and  reports  as  before. 


EXPERIMENTAL  PROCEDURE         127 

XXX.  Questionnaire: 

1.  Did  you  at  any  point  enjoy,  or  can  you  think  of  enjoying, 
record  No.  1's  rhythm  without  any  motor  response  at  all? 

2.  Can  you  think  of  any  comfortable  or  satisfying  motor  response 
except  beating  time  in  some  way? 

3.  Can  you  conceive  of  any  possible  way  of  beating  time  to  the 
rhythm  of  a  prose  passage   (without  distorting  the  natural 
grouping  of  the  words)  except  on  the  basis  of  an  elastic  under- 
unit,  accelerating  and  retarding  according  to  the  mood? 

4.  When  small  groups  of  beats  recur,  either  as  exact  echoes  and 
suggestions  of  echoes,  or  obvious  inversions  and  suggestions  of 
inversions,  irrespective  of  a  time-unit,  can  you  respond  to 
them  by  a  motor  reaction  with  so  high  a  degree  of  pleasure  as 
when  such  groups  recur  in  some  recognizable  connection  with 
a  time-unit? 

XXXI.  Unitary  music :  (first  test) 

Instruction:  "Listen  to  the  following  series  of  beats  with  closed 
eyes,  and  state  how  it  affects  you." 

E  beats  on  drum  the  rhythm  of  bars  six,  seven,  and  eight  (plus) 
of  The  Temple  of  Memphis,  by  Cyril  Scott,  after  which  O  is 
asked  whether  or  not  he  felt  the  recurrence  of  any  time-interval 
throughout  the  series.  E  then  instructs  O  to  be  ready  to  answer 
the  following  questions,  after  a  second  hearing: 

1.  (same  question  about  the  time-unit) 

2.  Did  you  respond  with  a  motor  reaction? 

3.  Did  you  notice  that  any  group  of  the  time-interval  was  repeated 
in  a  series? 

4.  Did  you  notice  the  subdivision  of  a  dominating  time-unit  into 
groupings  of  two,  three,  four,  etc? 

5.  State  again  how  the  drum-beats  affect  you. 

XXXII.  Unitary  pulses : 

Instruction:  "Take  your  favorite  type  of  motor  reaction  and 
continue  it,  at  a  rate  which  seems  pleasant  to  you,  for  about  ten 
seconds." 

Question:  "Did  you  think  of  the  series  of  motions  you  made  as 
in  any  way  divided  into  groups?" 

A  negative  answer  means  the  presence  of  unitary  pulses. 

XXXIII.  Unitary  music :  (second  test) 

E  beats  last  five  bars  (tempo  alone)  of  page  1  of  The  Temple 
of  Memphis,  and  then  asks  the  following  questions: 
1.   What  was  the  effect  upon  you? 


128  APPENDIX  II 

2.  Did  the  arrangement  of  beats  in  groups  of  varying  size  destroy 
your  feeling  that  there  was  a  unit  to  the  series? 

3.  Did  the  variety  in  size  of  these  groups  add  or  detract  interest 
from  the  series? 

E  instructs  O  to  keep  the  last  two  questions  in  mind,  and 
listen  to  the  beats  again.     After  a  second  report  from  O,  E 
shows  the  text  of  the  music  to  him  and  explains  what  is  meant 
by  the  "unitary"  basis. 
XXXIV.  Factors  in  organizing  drum-beat  series : 

Instruction:  "After  hearing  record  No.  1  again,  you  will  be 
asked:  To  what  extent  do  the  following  suppositions  assist  or  not 
assist  in  your  case,  to  explain,  or  render  less  puzzling,  elusive  im- 
pressions of  rhythm  in  prose  beats  such  as  you  have  just  heard: 

1.  An  elastic  under-unit  of  time  (accelerating  and  retarding),  re- 
curring in  a  series  of  similar  groups,  such  as  two's,  three's, 
four's,  five's,  etc.? 

2.  The  possibility  of  changing  back  and  forth  from  a  series  of 
units  grouped  in  two's,  to  a  series  grouped  in  three's,  etc.,  as 
occurs  in  regular  music?    (See  Schedule  II,  section  XXIX,  B) 

3.  The  possibilities  of  syncopation,  as  a  means  of  correlating  with 
a  time-unit  what  would  otherwise  be  merely  interfering  ele- 
ments? 

4.  The  possibility  of  substituting  for  any  unit-interval  an  equiva- 
lent group  of  smaller  intervals,  varying  freely  and  unexpectedly 
in  number  from  pulse  to  pulse,  as  occurred  in  the  first  experi- 
ment with  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott?     (Spontaneous  substitu- 
tion) 

5.  The  consideration  of  the  time-unit  as  forming  in  its  recurrence, 
not  necessarily  a  series  of  two's  or  of  three's  or  of  five's,  but  of 
unitary  pulses  (more  or  less  elastic),  capable  of  grouping  them- 
selves into  clusters  of  varying  size,  depending  upon  the  repe- 
tition of  the  unit  itself,  rather  than  upon  the  repetition  of  its 
groupings,  for  the  fundamental  organizing  influence  (as  occurred 
in  the  second  experiment  with  Cyril  Scott)? 

6.  The  imposition  of  a  fictitious  humming  tune  upon  the  series? 

O  then  hears  drum-beat  record  No.  1  (Walter  Pater),  after 
which  he  grades  the  six  hypothetical  factors  with  units  (3,  2,  1), 
according  to  the  degree  in  which  each  of  them  figures  in  what- 
ever subjective  organization  of  the  series  of  drum-beats  he 
experiences. 


APPENDIX   III 
EXPERIMENTAL  DATA 

The  table  of  contents  prefixed  to  Appendix  II  applies  also  to  this 
appendix,  since  the  enumeration  of  results  and  brief  comments  upon 
them  are  given  in  sections  corresponding  to  the  steps  in  the  experi- 
mental procedure.  A  large  amount  of  material  is  included  in  the  tab- 
ulations of  data,  which  is  not  discussed  in  the  main  text.  Just  as  the 
procedure  was  given  almost  in  full,  in  order  that  whatever  therein 
needs  to  be  criticized  might  be  frankly  disclosed,  so  here  an  opportu- 
nity is  afforded  for  careful  sifting  on  the  part  of  sufficiently  interested 
readers.  Such  a  mass  of  varied  material  can  hardly  fail  to  contain 
errors,  of  method  or  of  computation  or  of  statement. 

Section  I  contains  a  rough  description  of  the  group  of  observers 
who  took  part  in  the  tests.  Section  vii  applies  to  the  sense  of  "swing"; 
ix  shows  at  the  end  the  marked  ability  of  Observer  No.  7  to  keep  accu- 
rate time,  in  spite  of  various  disturbances;  xxii  and  xxiv,  the  excel- 
lence of  No's.  1,  4,  7,  8,  11,  and  12,  in  tests  concerned  with  simple  and 
complex  syncopation.  Toward  the  end  of  xxvii  occurs  the  tabulation  of 
judgments  passed  upon  the  five  phonograph  records,  among  which 
are  listed  the  five  judgments  recorded  by  No.  7,  who  subjectively 
organized  each  of  the  records  into  an  impression  of  regular  music, 
xxxi,  xxxii,  and  xxxiii  furnish  data  with  regard  to  unitary  pulses,  xxxiv 
shows  the  large  amount  of  difference  among  the  observers  with  regard 
to  the  subjective  organization  of  haphazard  series  and  the  factors  em- 
ployed. It  is  of  the  greatest  significance  that  No.  7  and  No.  12,  who 
have  evinced  aggressively  rhythmic  tendencies,  both  grade  syncopa- 
tion high.  No.  12  makes  it  the  chief  factor. 


129 


130  APPENDIX  III 

(First  Day) 
I.  Preliminary  questionnaire : 

Comparative    estimates,    obtained    by    grading    answers    with 
rough  units.    3  «=  high,  2  =  moderate,  1  -  low. 

Observer  No.  1    2  3  456  78  9    10  11  12 
Rough  estimate  of  musi- 
cal training:                     30  2  201  31  Oil  3 
musical  interest:                  32  3  312  32  312  3 
interest  in  rhythm:             31  3  200  32  111  3 
int.  in  literary  style:           32  2  321  30  210  2 
int.  in  artistic  technique:    22  3  310  30  110  1 
vividness  of  auditory  im- 
agery:                              31  2  211  32  201  3 
amount    of    motor    re- 
sponse:                           21  2  211  21  111  2 

summary  of  rough  units:  19     9     17     17    6    6    20    8     10    6    6     17 
(presumably  favorable  to 
the  perception  or  enjoy- 
ment of  rhythm) 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order:  (in  %  of  21  possible  units) 


O  No.    7: 

.95% 

1: 

.90 

3,4,  12: 

.81 

9: 

.48 

2: 

.43 

8: 

.38 

5,6,10,  11: 

.29 

Observer  No.  1  is  an  amateur  musician;  O  No.  4  is  an  English 
professor;  O's  No.  3,  5,  10,  11  are  research  students  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Psychology  at  Columbia;  O's  No.  2  and  6  are  instruct- 
ors, and  O's  No.  8  and  12,  professors  in  this  department;  O  No.  7 
is  a  professional  musician;  O  No.  9  is  a  Japanese  graduate  student 
in  Oriental  Philology.  The  above  list  of  preliminary  grades  has 
only  suggestive  value.  O  No.  11,  for  instance,  in  spite  of  his  low 
position,  ranks  high  in  a  number  of  the  subsequent  tests. 

II.  Pulse  rate:  O  No.     1        2        3        4        5       67       8         9       10     11     12 

(length  of  single  pulse    .80     .76    1.00     .86     .725  .735  .59       .83  1.16     .64     .82    .89 

in  seconds) 

HI.  Breath  rate:          6.00  5.00  3.75  3.75  4.29  4.62  3.75  10.0    3.75  5.72  5.00  3.33 

(length  of  single  breath 

in  seconds) 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  131 

IV.  Image-type  test  (rough) : 

V  -  visual,  K  -  kinaesthetic  (motor),  Aud  -  auditory,  Org  - 
organic,  etc. 

O  No.    1:    V  62%,  Aud  20%,  K  15%,  (others  scattered) 
2:    V  60%,  Aud  20%,  K  15%, 
3:   Aud-verbal  55%,  (others  vague  and  scattered) 
4:    V  55%,  Aud  15%,  K  10%,  Aud-verbal  suggestions 
6 :    V  80  %.  (rough  result  of  previous  tests) 
6:    V60%,         "          "        "      "          " 
7:    K  40%,  V  20%,  Aud-verbal  20%,  Org  20% 
8 :    K  predominates,  then  Aud  (rough  result  of  previous 

tests) 

9:    V  80%,  Aud  20% 
10:    V  70%,  K-verbal  20%,  K  10%,  (distinctly  deficient 

in  auditory  imagery) 

11:    V  60%,  Aud  20%,  K  10%,  (others  scattered) 
12:    Aud  predominates,  then  K,  then  V,  (result  of  pre- 
vious tests) 

V.  Unit-accuracy  —  simple  form :  (uas) 

O's  first  ten  serial  reproductions  of  the  standard  interval  in 
the  second  regular  test  are  measured,  their  average  obtained,  and 
their  average  deviation  from  this  average  computed  by  means  of 
the  well-known  formula  discussed  by  M  tiller:1 

SD 

Average  Variable  Error  •» 


'n(n-l) 

This  particular  formula  arbitrarily  increases  the  obtained  value 
for  AVE,  and  is  therefore  advisable  when  the  number  of  meas- 
urements is  limited.  The  Gross  Constant  Error  is  obtained  by 
subtracting  the  average  of  O's  reproductions  from  the  standard 
interval.  The  AVE  and  the  GCE  thus  obtained  are  turned  into 
per  cents  of  the  standard  interval,  and  the  O's  are  arranged  by 
means  of  these  values  into  two  series  of  relative  order. 

S  (standard  interval)  =  .7  sec. 

O's  arranged  in  relative  order:  (where  the  values  are  the  same 
for  several  O's,  the  latter  are  arranged,  for  convenience,  in  their 
serial  order). 

GCE  uas  (unit-accuracy  —  simple)  Ave  uas 

O  No.  1:     -.002(%ofS)  O  No.   1:    .02(%ofS) 

7:      -.01  9:    .02 


1  Miiller,  Methodik,  p.  192. 


132  APPENDIX  III 

6:  +.01+  7:  .03  9:  -.14+  6:  .05 

6:  -.02  8:  .03  4:  -.15  4:  .06 

11:  +.02  11:  .04  3:  -.17  12:  .07 

8:  -.06  6:  .045  •  10:  +.21  10:  .09 

12:  +.14  3:  .05  2:  -.30  2:  .12 

Under  conditions  of  accuracy  in  the  present  experiment  a  dif- 
ference between  two  observers  of  .005  is  not  enough  to  produce  a 
real  distinction.  Observers  No.  1  and  9  have  the  smallest  average 
variable  error,  which  means  that  they  are  steadiest  in  this  partic- 
ular test  in  adhering  to  whatever  reproduction  they  tend  to 
make  of  the  standard  interval.  O's  No.  1  and  7  and  5  have  the 
smallest  gross  constant  error,  which  means  that  their  average 
reproduction  is  most  nearly  equal  in  size  to  the  standard  interval. 
O's  Nos.  1  and  7  have  slightly  underestimated  it,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  negative  signs;  O  No.  5  has  overestimated  it.  O's  No.  10 
and  2  are  both  the  most  unsteady  of  the  group  (in  this  particular 
test)  and  the  most  inexact. 

VI.  Subjective  rhythm: 

1.   Involuntary  (non-suggested,  and  suggested): 
System  of  grading: 

Grade  1:  Observer  mentions  perceptions  of  rhythmic 
grouping  in  the  non-suggestion  series  and  in 
both  the  suggestion  series. 

Grade  2:  O  mentions  perception  of  grouping  in  the  non- 
suggestion  series  and  in  one  of  the  suggestion 
series. 

Grade  3:  Groups  mentioned  only  in  the  two  suggestion 
series. 

Grade  4:  Groups  mentioned  on  only  one  of  the  suggestion 
series. 

Grade  5:  No  groups  mentioned  in  any  of  the  series. 

Observers  arranged  according  to  grades: 
Grade  1:  O's  No.     1    3    4    8     11    12 
Grade  2:  667 

Grade  3:  2 

Grade  4:  10 

Grade  5:  9 

Observer  No.  9  seemed  to  have  no  tendency  to  subjective 
involuntary  rhythm  in  this  test. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  133 

2.    Voluntary: 

System  of  grading: 

Grade  1 :  Observer  signals  the  establishment  of  subjective 
groups  of  3  in  the  first  test  and  of  5  in  the 
second,  both  within  ten  seconds. 

Grade  2:  O  announces  3's  and  5's  within  thirty  seconds. 
Grade  3:  O  fails  in  one  of  the  tests,  but  announces  the 
desired    grouping    in    the    other    within   ten 
seconds. 
Grade  4:  O  fails  in  one,  but  announces  grouping  in  the 

other  within  thirty  seconds. 
Grade  5:  O  fails  in  both. 
Observers  arranged  according  to  grades: 


Grade  1: 

O's  No.  2 

5 

12 

Grade  2: 

7 

8 

10 

Grade  3: 

1 

Grade  4: 

3 

11 

Grade  5: 

4 

6 

9 

Some  of  the  observers  announced  that  their  failure  to  es- 
tablish groups  of  3  or  5  was  due  to  the  overpowering  strength 
of  subjective  2's  or  4's.  This  was  especially  true  with  O's 
No.  4  and  6.  O  No.  9  announced  that  he  could  not  force  odd 
rhythms  of  any  sort.  -^ 

VII.  Acceleration  experiment  (test  for  "swing"): 

Standard  series:    .7      .6      .6      .5      .6      .7     sec.     (Sum  - 
3.6  sec.) 

A.  Equations  of  trend: 

1.  (for  first  three  diminishing  —  i.e.,  accelerating  —  intervals) 

8  —  x 
y  =  — —  (y  =  length  of  interval,  x  =  position  in  the  series) 

2.  (for  last  three  increasing  —  i.e.,  retarding  —  intervals) 

x  +  1 

lo" 

B.  System  of  grading: 

1.  Gross  Constant  Error:  the  difference  in  seconds  between  O's 
reproduction  of  the  whole  series  and  the  sum  of  the  six  standard 
intervals  (3.6  sec.).    The  result  is  finally  expressed  in  %  of  3.6. 

2.  General  Trend:  Approximation  of  O's  reproduction  to  stand- 
ard series,    a,  b,  c,  d,  e,  f,  represent  the  six  intervals  of  the 


134  APPENDIX  III 

standard  series  in  succession;  a',  b',  c',  d',  e',  f ',  represent  O's 
reproductions.  Errors  in  approximation  less  than  .06  sec. 
(1  mm.  on  the  smoked-drum  record)  are  not  regarded  as  falsi- 
fications. This,  of  course,  simply  puts  an  arbitrary  interpre- 
tation upon  the  meaning  of  general  trend.  Two  successive 
intervals,  equalling  each  other  in  the  standard  series,  are 
considered  as  equal  in  O's  reproduction,  if  within  .06  sec.  of 
each  other.  Where  the  relation  between  two  standard  inter- 
vals is  a  difference  of  .1  sec.,  a  difference  of  .1  sec.,  plus  or  minus 
.06  sec.,  between  O's  reproductions  of  these  two  intervals,  is 
not  regarded  as  a  falsification  in  general  trend.  In  other 
words,  a'  —  b'  must  be  at  least  04.  and  not  more  than  .16, 
in  order  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  falsification.  Where  b  is  less 
than  a,  b'  must  be  less  than  a',  within  these  limits. 

The  six  standard  intervals  involve  thus  seven  conditions  of 
trend:  a  -  b  =•  .1,  b  -  c  =  .1,  c  =  d,  e  -  d  =  .1,  f  -  e  =  .1, 
a  =  f ,  and  b  =  e.  Observers  are  graded  according  to  the  approxi- 
mate conformity  of  their  reproductions  to  these  seven  condi- 
tions. This  results  in  seven  intervals  of  merit  value  between 
0  and  7/7  (100%),  or  eight  grades  including  the  levels  of  0 
and  100,  into  which  observers  fall  for  the  present  purposes  of 
classification.  The  grades  have  no  final  value  corresponding 
to  their  appearance  of  accuracy. 

Grade  1,  in  which  no  falsifications  occur,  is  thus  marked  as 
7/7,  or  100%;  Grade  2,  in  which  one  falsification  occurs,  is 
marked  as  6/7,  or  86%;  Grade  3,  as  5/7;  Grade  4,  as  4/7; 
Grade  5,  as  3/7;  Grade  6,  as  2/7;  Grade  7,  as  1/7;  and,  finally, 
Grade  8,  in  which  all  the  seven  conditions  are  falsified  com- 
pletely, or  else  not  observed  within  the  limits  of  .06  sec.,  as 
described  above,  is  marked  as  0.  This  zero  is,  of  course,  not 
absolute. 

3.  Average  of  Deviations  f —  ]  from  the  seven  "Relativ- 
ity Conditions,"  each  deviation  being  expressed  in  %  of  the 
respective  relativity  condition  from  which  it  deviates: 

The  "Relativity  Conditions"  are  the  relations,  obtained  by 
division,  between  the  six  standard  intervals.  Only  seven  of 
these  relations  are  chosen  as  significant.  They  are  as  follows: 

a/b  =  f/e  =  1.17 
b/c  =  e/d  -  1.20 
c/d  -  a/f  -  b/e  -  1.00 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  135 

Let  a'/b'  -  L  (the  proportion  existing  between  the  first  and 
second  interval  of  the  observer's  reproduction) 

b'/c'  -  M  f'/'e  -  P 

c'/d'  -  N  a'/P  -  Q 

e'/d'  -  O  b'/e'  -  R 

Then  1.17  —  L 

-  D'%  (deviation  of  a'/b'  from  a/b  in  % 

of  a/b) 


1.20 

1.00  -  N 
1.00 

Sum  D  %'s  -  SD  %  -  D'  %  +D"  %  +D"  '  %,  etc. 


OJ 

AVEsd  -  AVE  for^=^ /     '  '-  >  — 

7         6.5(-Vn(n-l))         6.5 

The  grading  value  for  approximation  to  the  seven  Relativity 
Conditions  is  marked  as  GVrc,  and  calculated  as  follows: 

GVrc  -  2AVEsd  +  — -  +  GCE  (see  sub-section  1,  above) 

This  is  an  arbitrary  equation,  devised  for  the  purpose  of 
convenience  in  ranking  the  observers.  AVEsd  is  doubled  in 
order  to  give  special  weight  to  steady  achievement.  GVrc  is 
thus  a  compound,  weighted  expression  of  error.  An  observer 
ranks  high  according  to  the  smallness  of  this  value. 

4.  General  Trend  in  judgment  and  line-division:  (GTld) 

Same  system  of  grading  as  for  General  Trend  in  section  2. 

Grade  1 :  no  falsifications,  7/7  or  100  % 
Grade  2:  one  falsification,  6/7  or  86% 
Grade  3:  two  falsifications,  5/7  or  72% 
etc.  etc. 

Each  observer,  thus,  according  to  his  grade,  receives  his 
GT%  for  LD  (general  trend  %  for  line-division)  or  GTld  %. 

5.  General  Trend  in  photographed  reproduction:  (GTph) 

Same  system  as  for  4.    Each  observer  receives  GTph  %. 


136  APPENDIX  III 

6.  General  Trend  in  kymograph  reproduction  (one  week  after  the 
second-day  experiment):  (GTk) 

Same  system  as  above.  Each  observer  receives  his  GTk  %. 
O's  No.  3, 10,  and  12,  whose  photograph  reproductions,  through 
accidents,  proved  inadmissible  for  measurement,  can  be  rated 
with  the  rest  of  the  group  only  by  substituting  their  grade  in 
kymograph  reproduction  for  their  missing  grade  in  photograph 
reproduction.  This,  of  course,  involves  inaccuracies,  although 
both  the  photograph  and  the  kymograph  records  are  based 
upon  O's  memory  of  the  original  series  after  the  lapse  of  a 
week. 

7.  Final  Grading  Value  for  accuracy  hi  reproduction  of  the  Stand- 
ard Series,  corrected  by  General  Trend  per  cent  in  judgment 
and  line-division  (GVacc) 

( 100- 
GVacc-  ' 


This  equation  is,  of  course,  arbitrary  and  merely  represents 
one  way  of  weighting  the  results  of  the  various  records,  in 
order  to  come  to  a  rough  conclusion  as  to  each  observer's 
ability,  under  the  special  conditions  of  the  test,  to  perceive 
and  remember  the  accelerating  progression,  or  "swing,"  of  the 
six  standard  intervals. 

4GT%  +2GTld%  +GTph%   . 

simply  means  the  average  grade, 

expressed  in  %,  assigned  to  an  observer  for  his  ability  in  ap- 
proximating the  general  trend  of  the  series,  with  least  weight 
upon  GTph%,  twice  as  much  upon  GTld%,  and  twice  that 
amount  upon  GT%.  There  are  thus  seven  units  of  weight  in 
all.  The  deviation  of  this  average  %  from  100%  is  given  equal 
weight  with  the  grading  value  for  conformity  to  the  seven 
relativity  conditions  (GVrc).  Their  sum,  accordingly,  divided 
by  2,  gives  an  average,  which  is  taken  as  a  convenient  grading 
value  for  individual  difference  in  accuracy  of  perception  and 
memory  of  the  acceleration  series.  Its  nature  is  that  of  a 
compound,  weighted  error. 

C:  Results: 

1.   Gross  Constant  Error: 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA 


137 


Observers  arranged  in  relative  order  according  to  GCE: 


,-      .00  sec 

.-      .00 

(%  of  S) 

-  -.03 

.01 

.03 

.01 

-  +.04 

-  +.01 

-  +.05 

-  +.01 

-  +.08 

-  +.02 

-  -.13 

-   -.04 

.16 

.04 

-  +.33 

=  +.09 

-  +.36 

-  +.10 

=  +.44 

=  +.12 

-  +.69 

-  +.19 

O  No.  1:  3.60 -3.60  sec. - 

3:  3.57-3.60 
10:  3.57-3.60 

8:  3.64-3.60 
12:  3.65-3.60 
11:  3.68-3.60 

7:  3.47-3.60 

6:  3.44-3.60 

2:  3.93-3.60 

4:  3.96-3.60 

9:  4.04-3.60 

6:  4.29-3.60 

O's  No.  3,  8,  10  and  12  are  virtually  on  the  same  level;  so, 
No.  7  and  6. 
2.   General  Trend: 

Observers  graded  according  to  conformity  to  the  seven  con- 
ditions of  General  Trend  (a-b  -  .1  sec.,  b  — c  -  .1,  c  — d-o, 
d  -  e  =  —  .1,  e-f-  —  .1,  a  -  f  =  0,  b  -  e  =  0)  within  the  limits 
of  .06  sec.,  as  already  explained. 

The  seven  conditions  are  represented  by  seven  symbols 
following  the  number  of  each  observer.  An  asterisk  (*)  rep- 
resents a  condition  approximately  fulfilled,  a  zero  (0)  represents 
a  falsification. 

Condition:  1234567 


GT% 

O  No.    1: 

Grade  1 

— 

7/7  or  100% 

12: 

0 

Grade  2 

= 

6/7 

6: 

0 

* 

* 

* 

0 

0 

* 

Grade  4 

= 

4/7 

7: 

* 

* 

0 

0 

* 

* 

0 

Grade  4 

• 

4/7 

8: 

* 

0 

* 

0 

0 

* 

* 

Grade  4 

= 

4/7 

11: 

* 

* 

* 

0 

0 

* 

0 

Grade  4 

m 

4/7 

4: 

0 

0 

0 

* 

* 

0 

* 

Grade  5 

- 

3/7 

2: 

0 

0 

0 

0 

* 

* 

0 

Grade  6 

m 

2/7 

6: 

* 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

* 

Grade  6 

m 

2/7 

9: 

0 

0 

* 

0 

* 

0 

0 

Grade  6 

- 

2/7 

10: 

* 

* 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

Grade  6 

m 

2/7 

3: 

0 

0 

* 

0 

0 

0 

0 

Grade  7 

= 

1/7 

7 

6 

7 

4 

6 

6 

5 

tunes  fulfilled 

138  APPENDIX  HI 

The  first  and  third  conditions  (a  -  b  -.1  sec,  and  c  -  d  -  0) 
were  thus  most  frequently  fulfilled.  The  fourth  condition 
(d  -  e  -  -.1)  was  most  frequently  falsified. 

3.  Average  of  Deviations  from  the  seven  "Relativity  Conditions": 
Observers  arranged   in  relative   order  according   to  Average 

(SD%) 
of  Deviations —  from  the  7  Rel.  Cond.  (1.17,  1.20,  1.00, 

1.20,  1.17, 1.00,  1.00): 

SD% 


O  No.    1:  .06 

12:  .07         7 

11:  .08 

8:  .13 

5:  .14 

4:  .14  + 

7:  .16 

6:  .19 

2:  .20 

10:  .23 

9:  .35 

3:  .435 

Observers  No.  1, 11,  and  12,  thus  come  closest,  on  an  average, 
to  fulfilling  the  Relativity  Conditions. 

Arranged  according  to  their  average  variable  error  in  attain- 
ing their  individual  average  approximation  to  fulfilling  the 
conditions,  the  observers  rank  as  follows: 

O  No.    1:  .03-AVEsd 

12:  .05 

6:  .06 

4:  .065 

11:  .07 

7:  .075 

8:  .09 

10:  .10 

2:  .12 

6:  .17 

9:  .27 

3:  .28 

Observers  No.  1  and  12  are  thus  found  to  be  steadiest,  in 
this  particular  test,  in  attaining  for  each  condition  their  aver- 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA 


139 


age  degree  of  approximation.  In  other  words,  they  are  likely 
to  make  a  number  of  small  errors  rather  than  one  large  error 
counterbalanced  by  several  very  small  ones. 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order  according  to  the  grad- 
ing value  for  fulfillment  of  relativity  conditions  (GVrc) 


ONo.    1: 

12: 

11: 

6: 

8: 

7: 


GVrc  -  2AVEsd 

.13  -  GVrc 

.18 

.24 

.31 

.32 

.35 


+QCE 


O  No.  10 

.44 

-GVrc 

4 

.50 

2 

.53 

6 

.73 

3 

1.00 

9 

1.01 

4. 


Observers  No.  1  and  12  thus  attain  the  highest  degree  of 
combined  steadiness  and  average  relative  accuracy  in  perceiving 
and  reproducing  the  "swing"  of  the  original  series,  together 
with  accuracy  in  estimating  the  gross  value  of  its  duration. 
The  average  variable  error  in  the  formula  employed  above  has 
been  arbitrarily  weighted,  in  order  to  put  a  premium  upon 
steadiness  in  the  final  valuation. 
General  Trend  in  judgment  and  line-division:  (GTld) 

As  in  section  2  an  asterisk  (*)  represents  the  fulfillment;  a 
zero  (0),  the  falsification  of  a  general  trend  condition  (a-b  = 
.1  sec.,  etc.) 

Observers  graded  according  to  conformity  to  the  seven  gen- 
eral trend  conditions: 


Condition:    1234567 


GTld% 


0  No.   1: 

0 

Grade  2  =  6/7  =  .86% 

2: 

0 

Grade  3  -  5/7  -  .72% 

6: 

* 

0 

* 

0 

* 

* 

* 

Grade  3      etc.      etc. 

10: 

* 

* 

0 

* 

* 

0 

* 

Grade3 

4: 

* 

* 

0 

* 

0 

* 

0 

Grade  4 

7: 

0 

• 

0 

* 

* 

* 

0 

Grade  4 

9: 

* 

0 

* 

0 

* 

0 

* 

Grade  4 

5: 

* 

• 

0 

* 

0 

0 

0 

GradeS 

8: 

0 

0 

* 

0 

0 

* 

* 

Grade  5 

11: 

0 

* 

0 

* 

0 

* 

0 

GradeS 

12: 

* 

* 

0 

0 

* 

0 

0 

GradeS 

3: 

0 

0 

0 

* 

0 

0 

0 

Grade  7 

8838775    times  fulfilled 


140  APPENDIX  III 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  third  condition,  which  in 
section  2  was  found  to  be  one  of  the  most  frequently  fulfilled, 
is  here  the  most  frequently  falsified.  This  condition  is  the  one 
of  equality  between  c  and  d,  the  third  and  fourth  intervals  of 
the  series.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fourth  condition  (d  -  e  - 
-  .1),  which  before  was  most  frequently  falsified,  is  here  one  of 
the  three  most  frequently  fulfilled.  Various  causes  produced  a 
certain  amount  of  irregularity  in  the  tune-interval  that  elapsed 
between  the  hearing  of  the  original  series  and  the  operation  of 
line-di vision;  but  with  the  exception  of  O  No.  7,  the  latter 
was  performed  after  at  least  a  week  had  elapsed  subsequent 
to  the  last  hearing  of  the  series.  In  this  way  the  results,  with 
one  exception,  can  be  considered  as  affected  by  dimness  of 
memory  in  general,  combined  with  effects  of  judgment  per- 
sisting, in  some  cases,  over  sensation  images.  Since  the  dec- 
laration of  judgments  upon  the  intervals  was  required,  in 
addition  to  the  line-division,  there  seems  to  be  good  reason  for 
considering  the  results  obtained  as  largely  matters  of  judgment, 
backed  up  by  whatever  facility  was  given  to  the  task  by  the 
addition  of  a  visual  scheme.  It  would  be  an  error,  however,  to 
put  any  great  reliance  upon  the  line  division  test  by  itself.  If 
the  observer  merely  remembers  that  the  six  intervals  first 
grew  shorter  and  then  longer,  the  task  of  dividing  the  line  into 
six  intervals  may  by  mere  chance  lead  him  into  approximations 
of  great  accuracy,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  into  a  different  type 
of  error  from  what  occurred  in  his  immediate  reproduction  of 
the  series  a  week  before. 

5.  General  Trend  in  photographed  reproduction:  (GTph) 
Observers  graded  as  before: 


Condition:   123 

4567 

GTph% 

O  No.  11:   *     * 

*    0    *    ( 

)    Grade  3  -  5/7 

(72%) 

1:  0    * 

*    0    0 

Grade  4  -  4/7 

2:  0    0 

0     *     * 

Grade  4  =  4/7 

9:  0    * 

0    0     * 

Grade  4  -  4/7 

4:  0    * 

000 

Grade  5  -  3/7 

8:   *    0    ( 

)     *    0    0 

Grade  5  -  3/7 

(12:  0    *     < 

'     *    0    0    ( 

)    Grade  5  -  3/7) 

6:   *    0    ( 

)     *    0    0    ( 

)    Grade  6  -2/7 

(10:   *    *    ( 

)    0    0    0    ( 

)    Grade  6  -2/7) 

6:  0    0    ( 

)     *    0    0    ( 

)    Grade  7  -  1/7 

(3:0    *    ( 

)    0    0    0    ( 

)    Grade  7-  1/7) 

4    7    ( 

)    6    1    3     < 

;    times  fulfilled 

EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  141 

The  spoken  reproductions  made  by  O's  No.  12,  10,  and  3 
were  unsuccessfully  recorded,  so  that  kymograph  reproductions 
tapped  on  the  same  day,  are  substituted  in  the  above  table. 
This  irregularity  must  be  taken  into  consideration  whenever 
the  results  are  applied.  The  most  striking  fact  about  the  table 
is  that  the  fifth  condition  (e  —  f  -  —.1)  is  misjudged  in  11 
cases  out  of  12.  In  both  the  previous  tables  it  was  6  times  right 
and  6  times  wrong. 

Sound -photograph  measurements:  (six-interval  series  of 
seven  "top's") 

O  No.  11:  .76        .64        .49        .51        .56        .74  sec. 
1:  .77        .60        .52        .57        .63        .65 
2:  .68        .50        .50        .55        .52        .67 


9:  .57 

.33 

.27 

.32 

.32 

.62 

4:  .43 

.53 

.44 

.39 

.57 

.57 

8:  .79 

.70 

.45 

.52 

.72 

.70 

5:  .86 

.75 

.52 

.59 

.63 

.63 

6:  .93 

.92 

.55 

.48 

.63 

.58 

The  above  order  is  that  of  general  trend,  according  to  the 
degree  in  which  the  reproductions  correspond  to  the  original 
series: 

.7        .6        .5        .5        .6        .7  sec.  S  -  3.60 

On  account  of  fluctuations  in  the  time-line  employed,  these 
measurements  must  not  be  considered  accurate  beyond  .02 
sec.  for  an  interval  of  .75  sec.  For  the  purposes  of  the  present 
experiment,  however,  an  even  larger  margin  could  be  per- 
mitted. 
6.  Kymograph-reproduction: 

This  record  was  made  simply  as  a  precaution,  in  order  to 
have  objective  evidence  of  the  observer's  memory  of  the  accel- 
eration series,  in  case  the  photographic  record  happened  to  be 
spoiled.  This  was  the  case  with  O's  No.  3,  10,  and  12,  whose 
kymograph  memory  records  are  subjoined: 

O  No.  12:  .60        .62        .51        .50        .54        .84  sec. 
3:  .70        .30        .36        .54        .42        .60 
10:  .81        .70        .54        .70      1.00        .99 

The  photograph  and  kymograph  memory  reproductions  were 
made  one  week  after  the  last  hearing  of  the  standard  series. 
To  what  extent  any  factors  outside  of  judgment  and  memories 


142  APPENDIX  III 

of  judgment  come  into  play  is  a  problem  left  unanswered.  In 
any  case,  the  function  of  memory,  even  when  dim  and  uncertain 
in  its  source,  is  of  much  importance  in  determining  individual 
difference  in  connection  with  so-called  "swing."  The  ability 
to  strike  a  certain  note  at  what  impresses  the  hearers  as  "ex- 
actly the  psychological  moment "  undoubtedly  requires  a  com- 
plex of  more  or  less  accurate  memories  of  the  preceding  notes 
in  the  series.  In  order  that  a  progression  of  intervals  may 
lead  to  a  definite  "point,"  apparently  inevitable  when  once 
attained,  the  performer  can  hardly  be  expected  to  qualify  for 
the  task  unless  he  be  provided  with  fairly  accurate  memory- 
images,  involving  the  "relations"  as  well  as  the  absolute  values 
of  the  series  he  is  completing. 

7.  Final  Grading  Value  for  accuracy  in  reproduction,  corrected 
by  general  trend  %  in  judgment  and  line-division,  and  general 
trend  %  in  photograph  reproduction  (memory  of  S  after  7 
days):  (GVacc) 


GVacc 


flQQ-4GT%+2GTld%+GTPh%N)+GVrc 
V  7  / 


Observers  arranged  in  relative  order: 

O  No.  1:  12.1  -  GVacc  (compound,  weighted  error) 

12:  25.5 

11:  34.5 

6:  40.0 

8:  40.5 

7:  45.9  Average  =  49.62 

4:  51.3 

10:  51.5 

2:  53.85 

6:  67.1 

»:  80.2 

3:  93.0 

It  is  surprising  to  find  to  what  an  extent  the  twelve  observers, 
according  to  the  above  figures,  appear  to  represent  a  fairly 
broad  and  comprehensive  range  of  individual  difference.  The 
two  extremes  represent  about  as  even  a  deviation  from  the 
average  (49.6)  as  one  could  hope  to  find  out  of  a  much  larger 
group  of  persons.  O  No.  12,  the  second  in  the  list,  is  almost 
exactly  as  far  from  the  first  in  the  list  as  O  No.  9,  the  next  to 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  143 

the  last,  is  from  the  last.  The  same  sort  of  relative  position 
exists  for  O  No.  11,  and  O  No.  6.  The  remaining  six  ob- 
servers are  found  between  the  comparatively  narrow  range  of 
40.0  and  53.85.  The  arithmetical  mean  is  49.62,  or  virtually 
50.  In  other  words,  the  distribution  of  the  observers  happens 
to  suggest  the  normal  probability  curve,  with  a  slight  skew  to 
one  side.  The  median  comes  between  O  No.  7  and  O  No.  4, 
very  close  to  the  mean;  and  the  mode  or  point  of  greatest 
density  is  not  far  away,  in  the  neighborhood  of  O  No.  4.  O 
No.  4  may  thus  be  regarded,  roughly,  as  having  a  normal 
degree  of  proficiency  in  accuracy  of  "swing"  perception  and 
memory;  those  below  him,  as  being  to  some  extent  deficient 
in  this  respect;  those  above  him,  as  being  more  or  less  unusual 
in  their  proficiency.  All  systems  of  grading,  however,  are  highly 
dangerous  and  likely  to  be  misleading  if  too  much  reliance  is  put 
upon  them.  About  the  only  fact  that  is  really  certain  in  the 
above  list  of  figures  is  the  following:  Under  the  conditions  of 
the  present  experiment,  without  regard  to  possible  improve- 
ment in  performance,  O's  No.  1,  12,  and  11  made  a  consistently 
more  accurate  record  of  their  perception  and  memory  of  a 
certain  series  of  accelerating  and  retarding  intervals,  than  was 
achieved  by  O's  No.  6,  9,  and  3.  Many  other  deductions  can 
be  made,  some  of  them  useful;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  all  of  them  will  be  tinged  with  a  measure  of  uncertainty. 
It  must  also  be  emphasized  that  in  the  above  list  of  grading 
values,  the  average  (49.6)  is  the  point  of  departure  for  ranking 
the  observers.  GVacc,  being  a  compound  error,  can  exceed 
100  numerically. 
VIII.  Schedule  syncopation : 

Schedule:  0"0  OO'O  O'OO  '00'  (fifteen  intervals) 
The  intervals  between  O's  taps  (marked  in  the  schedule  by 
accents)  are  measured  as  far  as  the  fifth  tap.  The  first  interval 
represents  O's  reproduction  of  the  standard  interval  (5.  sec),  as 
given  by  the  metronome.  The  second  interval  represents  four 
separate  subjective  untapped  intervals.  It  is  consequently  divided 
by  four,  after  measurement.  The  next  two  intervals  both  repre- 
sent three  subjective  intervals;  so  each  of  them  is  divided  by 
three.  This  makes  eleven  consecutive  intervals  to  which  a  value 
has  been  assigned.  The  first  ten  of  them  are  taken  and  averaged 
in  order  to  represent  O's  ability  to  carry  out  a  syncopation  sched- 
ule, based  upon  an  assigned  unit,  which  he  is  to  reproduce  "as 
exactly  as  possible." 


144  APPENDIX  HI 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order,  first  with  regard  to  Gross 
Constant  Error  (GCE),  and  then  with  regard  to  Average  Variable 
Error  (AVE)  in  attaining  their  average  reproduction: 

GCEss  (schedule  sync.)  AVEss 

O  No.  11:  -.02  (%  of  S)  O  No.    6:  .01  (%  of  S) 

10:  -.02+  12:  .02 

8:  -.09  8:  .03 

12:  -.10  1:  .04 

7:  -.13  4:  .04  + 

2:  -.14  2:  .05 

9:  -.14+  11:  .05  + 

5:  -.15  9:  .06 

1:  -.15+  3:  .06  + 

3:  -.20  5:  .09 

6:  -.25  10:  .13 

4:  -.27  7:  .50 

The  observers,  without  exception,  underestimated  the  standard 
interval  in  their  reproductions.  In  other  words,  they  went  faster 
than  the  metronome  in  their  combined  rate  of  tapped  and  un- 
tapped intervals.  O  No.  10  stands  high  in  average  precision  of 
interval  (GCE),  but  next  to  the  last  in  steadiness.  O  No.  6  is 
next  to  the  last  in  average  precision,  but  first  in  steadiness;  i.e., 
his  rate  was  entirely  too  fast,  but  he  maintained  it  consistently. 
O  No.  7  was  the  most  unsteady  of  all  in  maintaining  his  average 
rate.  O  No.  8  was  consistently  high  in  both  respects. 

IX.   Complex  coordination,  involving  Unit  Accuracy.  (CC  and  CCua) 

O  accompanies  metronome,  beating  at  .5  sec.  interval,  accord- 
ing to  the  following  schedule: 

RF  rf  If   "ta,"   LF  rf  If   "clo,"  (repeated  for  twenty  seconds) 
RF  =  right  foot   (taps  foot  key) 
rf  =  right  finger 
If  =  left  finger 
"ta,"  uttered  by  voice,  taps  omitted,  etc.,  etc. 

A.  Complex  coordination:  (CC%) 

Method  of  grading: 

Grade  1:  no  taps  added  or  omitted,  and  no  confusion  of  "ta" 
with  "clo,"  between  the  first  and  fifth  right-finger 
tap,  as  it  recurs  in  the  series.  (7/7  or  100%) 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  145 

Grade  2:  one  tap  added  or  omitted.    (6/7  or  86%) 

Grade  3:  two  tap  errors.    (5/7) 

Grade  4:  "clo"  and  "ta"  confused,  or  three  tap  errors.     (4/7) 

Grade  5:       "        "      "          "         and  one  tap  error,  or  four 

tap  errors.     (3/7) 
Grade  6:       "        "      "          "          and  two  tap  errors,  or  five 

tap  errors.     (2/7) 
Grade  7:       "        "      "  and  three  tap  errors,  or  six 

tap  errors.     (1/7) 
Grade  8:       "        "      "          "          and  four  or  more  errors.    (0) 

Observers  arranged  according  to  grades: 

Grade  1:   O's  No.  4        10        11 

Grade  2:  1          3          6        8        9        12 

Grade  3:  7 

Graded:  2          5 

Grades  4,  6,  7,  and  8  are  not  represented.  The  above  grades 
can  in  no  way  be  taken  as  final.  In  nearly  every  case,  the  observ- 
ers made  a  strenuous  effort  to  attain  the  result  expected.  This 
was  particularly  true  with  regard  to  O's  No.  3,  4,  and  7.  On  the 
other  hand,  O's  No.  1,  10,  and  11  achieved  their  results  with  com- 
parative ease.  There  is  no  doubt  that  after  a  week  of  practise, 
many,  of  the  observers  would  have  changed  their  relative  position. 

In  the  present  set  of  experiments  a  longer  test  was  out  of  the 
question.  As  it  stands,  the  grading  is  merely  suggestive.  It  is 
fairly  certain  that  O's  No.  1,  10,  and  11,  who  responded  to  the 
test  with  a  visible  degree  of  ease,  possess  at  least  a  moderately 
high  measure  of  facility,  native  or  acquired,  in  executing  this  par- 
ticular task.  O's  No.  2  and  5  show  deficiency. 
B.  Complex  coordination,  as  affecting  Unit  Accuracy:  (CCua,  or 
ccua) 

System  of  measurement: 

The  intervals  between  the  right  and  left  finger  taps  are  meas- 
ured as  far  as  the  fifth  such  interval.  These  five  measurements 
are  averaged;  their  Gross  Constant  Error  determined  in  percent 
of  .5  sec.  (the  metronome  interval  they  are  supposed  to  equal); 
and,  finally,  their  Average  Variable  Error  (written  as  AVEccua) 
in  attaining  the  average  reproduction  estimated  according  to  the 
formula  used  before. 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order,  first  with  regard  to  GCE- 
ccua  and  then  with  regard  to  AVEccua: 


146  APPENDIX  III 

GCEccua  AVEccua 

O  No  12:        -.08  (%  of  S)  O  No.  11:        .02  (%  of  S) 

4:         -.10  3:        .03 

11:         -.105  4:        .03 

3:          -.11  7:        .03 

7:         -.11  12:        .06 

1:         -.12  1:        .07 

10:         -.13  5:        .07 

6:         -.21  10:        .08 

9:         -.24  6:        .12 

6:         -.27  2:        .28 

2:         -.32  8:        .32 

8:          -.35  9:         .34 

The  Gross  Constant  Errors  are  all  of  them  relatively  large  and 
indicate  a  universal  tendency  to  make  the  interval  between  the 
right  and  left  finger  taps  shorter  than  the  interval  of  the  metro- 
nome which  the  observers  are  attempting  to  accompany.  O's 
No.  11,  4,  3,  and  7  are  consistently  high  in  both  columns.  O  No. 
12  might  also  be  included.  O's  No.  2,  6,  8,  and  9  are  consistently 
low.  These  relations  are  of  value  in  checking  up  the  results  of  the 
preceding  gradings  under  A. 

The  two  sets  of  results  are  combined  into  a  grading  value 
for  Complex  Coordination  (GVcc)  according  to  the  following 
arbitrary  formula: 

100%  -  CC% 
GVcc im +  GCEccua  +  AVEccua 

XvHJ 

In  this  formula  three  error  values  are  added  together  and 
given  equal  weight  in  determining  the  relative  position  of  the 
observers;  but  since  the  second  and  third  both  refer  to  results 
obtained  under  B  for  Unit  Accuracy,  the  grade  obtained  for  co- 
ordination under  A  (CC%)  plays  a  subordinate  r61e.  This  seems 
to  be  justified  by  the  less  accurate  nature  of  the  results  obtained 
under  A. 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order,  according  to  the  grading 
values  (GVcc)  obtained  by  combining  the  results  of  A  and  B: 
O  No.  11:        .13  GVcc    (compound  error)  O  No.  7:        .43  GVce 
4:        .14  6:        .53 

10:        .21  9:        .73 

12:        .28  8:        .82 

3:        .29  5:        .85 

1:        .33  2:      1.17 

Average  -  .49 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  147 

It  must  be  remembered  that  GVcc  is  the  sum  of  three  errors. 

GVcc 

For  some  purposes  — - —  might  be  considered  a  more  logical  grad- 
3 

ing  value.     In  this  case  the  average  amount  of  error  would  be 

.49 
rated  as  —  -  .16. 

The  results  for  Unit  Accuracy  in  the  tables  under  B  can  be 
correlated  with  similar  results  obtained  in  section  V  (AVEuas 
and  GCEuas),  according  to  the  following  formulas: 

AVEuas  +AVEccua 
AVEuat  (Unit-accuracy  Totals) 

GCEuat-°CEuM2+GCEcCUa 

GVua  (grading  value)  =•  2AVEuat  +GCEuat 

This  formula  for  GV  gives  special  weight  to  steadiness,  rather 
than  to  merely  average  precision  (GCE). 

Observers  arranged  in  relative  order,  according  to  the  grading 
values  obtained  for  Unit  Accuracy,  both  under  simple  conditions 
and  under  the  disturbances  caused  by  the  necessities  of  Complex 
Coordination: 

O  No.  7 :  .12  GVua  (compound  error) 

11:  .13 

1:  .15 

3:  .20 

4:  .20  + 

12:  .22 

6 :  .23  Average  =  .30 

6:  .31 

10:  .31  + 

9:  .53 

8:  .55 

2:  .66 

The  final  emergence  to  the  top  of  O  No.  7,  the  professional 
musician,  is  due  to  his  consistently  high  rank.  O  No.  10's  pro- 
ficiency under  the  difficulties  of  coordination  was  relatively  much 
greater  than  when  relieved  of  these  difficulties,  under  the  conditions 
of  the  earlier  test.  Variation  in  the  state  of  attention  may  have 
been  a  factor  in  this  discrepancy.  The  more  difficult  task  may 
have  spurred  her  on  to  greater  relative  precision. 

O  No.  2  remains  consistently  last,  and  O  No.  11  consistently 
toward  the  first. 


148  APPENDIX  III 

X.  Walking-rate,  etc. : 

Observers   arranged   according   to   time   of  walking-step,   with 
other  "rates"  in  parallel  columns: 

Walk        Nod     Tap     Sway  Ta-Ta  Pulse    Breath 
ONo.  1:    .545  or  .55        .81       1.03       1.03      .71         .80        6.00  sec. 


3: 

.555 

.56 

1.11 

.38 

1.03 

.77 

1.00 

3.75 

10: 

.588 

.6 

1.25 

.91 

1.43 

.59 

.64 

5.72 

8: 

.625 

.6 

1.43 

.25 

1.67 

.25 

.83 

10.00 

2: 

.667 

.7 

3.33 

.35 

4.00 

.42 

.76 

5.00 

6: 

.714 

.7 

1.67 

.17 

1.11 

.25 

.74 

4.62 

7: 

.714 

.7 

1.00 

.39 

.91 

.39 

.57 

3.75 

11: 

.789 

.8 

.91 

.19 

.91 

.31 

.82 

5.00 

9: 

.811 

.8 

1.11 

.63 

1.05 

.56 

1.16 

3.75 

12: 

.811 

.8 

1.67 

.56 

1.54 

.40 

.89 

3.33 

4: 

.833 

.8 

1.82 

.53 

1.11 

.36 

.86 

3.75 

5: 

.090 

.9 

.83 

.50 

1.25 

.71 

.73 

4.29 

The  most  striking  apparent  correlations  are  as  follows: 

O  No.  1 :  Tap  and  sway  are  identical,  and  approximately  twice 
walk.      Pulse  and  nod  approx.  the  same.    Breath 
is  approx.  six  times  tap. 
2 :  Tap  is  approximately  half  of  walk. 
3 :  Nod  is  exactly  twice  walk,  Ta-ta  is  twice  tap. 
4:  Sway  is  approximately  twice  tap. 
6:  Ta-ta  and  pulse  approximately  equal.     Breath,  six 

times  ta-ta. 

6:  Ta-ta  is  one  third  of  pulse. 
7:  Tap  and  ta-ta  exactly  alike. 

8 :  Tap  and  ta-ta  exactly  alike.    Sway  is  twice  pulse. 
9 :  Nod  is  twice  ta-ta,  and  approximately  equal  to  pulse. 
10 :  Ta-ta  and  walk  the  same.    Nod  approx.  twice  pulse. 
11:  Sway  and  nod  exactly  the  same.     Sway  is  approx. 
three  times  ta-ta.    Pulse  and  walk  approximately 
equal. 

12:  Nod  is  approx.  twice  walk,  and    three   times   tap. 
Breath  is  twice  nod. 

These  correlations  are  all  more  or  less  dubious,  especially  for 
such  short  tests  as  the  experiment  demanded.  The  pulse-rates 
are  particularly  unreliable.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  form  a 
rough  classification  of  the  observers,  according  to  the  number  of 
correlations  suggested. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  149 

Arrangement  of  O's  in  relative  order: 

O  No.  1 :  four  correlations. 

O's  No.  11  and  12:  three  correlations. 

O's  No.  3,  6,  8,  9,  and  10 :  two  correlations. 

O's  No.  2,  4,  6,  and  7 :  one  correlation. 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  with  seven  sets  of  figures  some  of 
the  correlations  might  be  easily  due  to  mere  chance.  Of  the  seven 
rates  determined  the  walking  rate  is  perhaps  the  most  reliable. 
The  observers  were  not  in  any  way  hurried,  but  were  asked  to 
walk  up  and  down  the  main  hall  of  the  building  until  they  were  sure 
they  had  attained  what  they  could  call  a  normal,  comfortable  rate, 
such  as  they  would  employ  if  they  were  walking  for  pleasure.  They 
were  to  maintain  this  rate,  on  entering  the  laboratory,  until  meas- 
ured with  a  stop-watch  by  the  experimenter.  It  should  be  men- 
tioned that  their  various  rates,  as  measured,  do  not  carry  out 
Wundt's  theory  of  correlation  of  walking  rate  with  length  of 
leg.  The  length  of  the  leg  of  O  No.  9  is  37  inches,  measured  from  his 
hip-bone  to  the  floor.  That  of  O  No.  6  is  five  inches  longer,  yet  in- 
stead of  9's  rate  being  faster  than  6's,  it  is  considerable  slower,  as 
can  be  seen  from  the  tables.  The  legs  of  O's  No.  1  and  3  are  both 
two  inches  longer  than  O  No.  9's,  yet  their  rate  of  walking  is  very 
much  faster. 

Wundt2  gives  .98  as  the  "usual"  length  of  a  double  step,  which 
would  make  a  single  step  equal  .49  sec.  The  average  of  the  steps 
of  the  twelve  observers  in  the  present  experiment  amounts  to  .71 
for  a  single  step,  or  1.42  for  a  double  step.  O  No.  6,  moreover, 
has  a  single  step  almost  equal  to  Wundt's  "usual"  double  step. 
Other  investigators  beside  Wundt  have  announced  average  rates 
more  nearly  in  accord  with  the  above  results. 

XI.  Pitch  memory : 

Method  of  grading:  The  observer  hears  the  original  tone  and 
then  a  series  of  ten,  three  of  which  are  repetitions  of  the  stimulus 
tone.  These  he  is  to  identify,  as  explained  in  Appendix  II. 

Grade  1 :  3  exactly  right. 

Grade  2 :  2  right,  1  within  2  vibrations. 

Grade  3:  2     "     1       "3        " 

Grade  4:  1      "     2       "2        " 

Grade  5:1      "1       "2  and  1  within  3  vibrations. 

Grade  6:  1      "     2       "3        " 


1  Wundt,  op.  tit.,  pp.  7  and  22. 


150  APPENDIX  III 

Grade   7:  0     "     3       "2 

Grade   8:  0     "     2       "2        "  "1       "1  " 

Grade   9:0"!       "2        "  "2      "3  " 

Grade  10 :  All  combinations  in  which  one  of  the  errors  is  5  vibrations 
away  from  the  original  tone. 

The  element  of  chance  is,  of  course,  a  factor  in  so  short  and 
rough  a  test  as  the  present  one,  which  can  hardly  be  considered  as 
more  than  suggestive.  Those,  however,  who  fall  within  grades 
8,  9,  and  10,  can  be  considered  without  much  danger  of  error  as 
more  or  less  deficient  in  pitch  memory. 

Observers  arranged  according  to  grades: 


11        12 


Grade    1: 

ONo.  4 

Grade   2: 

3 

Grade   3: 

9 

Grade    4: 

2 

7        8 

Grade   5: 

1 

Grade   6: 

not  represented 

Grade    7: 

" 

" 

Grade   8: 

6 

10 

Grade    9: 

not  i 

•epresented 

Grade  10 :  5 

It  is  clear  that  O  No.  4  is  excellent,  and  that  O's  No.  6,  10,  and  5 
are  more  or  less  deficient.  There  is  also  a  probability  that  O  No. 
3  is  excellent  and  O  No.  9  not  far  behind  him.  The  status  of  O's 
No.  2,  7,  8,  11,  12,  and  1  is  rather  doubtful,  except  as  definitely 
neither  very  high  nor  very  low. 

XII.  Harmony  memory : 

Method  of  grading:  O  is  to  recognize  a  stimulus  chord,  repeated 
three  times  in  a  series  of  ten.  The  test  is  fairly  easy,  and  chiefly 
calculated  to  bring  out  marked  deficiency,  rather  than  to  establish 
any  detailed  system  of  gradation  among  the  observers. 

Grade  1 :  all  three  right. 
Grade  2:  two  right. 
Grade  3:  one  right. 
Grade  4:  none  right. 

O's  arranged  according  to  grade: 

Grade  1:  O's  No.  1,    2,    3,    4,    6,    7,    8,    9,    11,    12 

Grade  2:  O     No.  5 

Grade  3:  0     No.  10 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  151 

On  account  of  the  easiness  of  the  task  it  is  evident  that  O's  No. 
6  and  10  are  more  or  less  deficient.  O  No.  10's  complete  lack  of 
types  of  auditory  imagery  in  the  image-type  test  is  confirmed. 

XIII.  Vowel-quality  memory : 

Method  of  grading:  O  is  to  identify  three  stimulus  groups  of 
vowel  sounds  as  they  recur. 
Grade  1 :  all  three  right. 
Grade  2:  two  right. 
Grade  3:  one  right. 
Grade  4:  none  right. 

O's  arranged  according  to  grade: 

Grade  1:  O's  No.  1,    2,    6,    6,    8,    9,    12 

Grade  2:  O's  No.  4,    7 

Grade  3:  O's  No.  3,  11 

Grade  4:  O     No.  10 

O  No.  10  continues  to  show  consistently  the  effects  of  a  lack  of 
auditory  imagery.  The  large  number  of  those  who  made  no  errors 
shows  that  the  test  was  comparatively  easy.  This  leads  one  to 
infer  that,  at  any  rate,  those  who  fell  into  grade  3  and  4  show  a 
marked  inability  to  remember  groups  of  vowel  sounds.  It  is  surpris- 
ing, however,  to  find  among  this  number  O  No.  11,  who  was  first 
in  the  list  in  the  test  for  complex  coordination  (GVcc)  and  high  in 
the  list  in  the  Acceleration  Experiment  (GVacc).  In  the  later  tests 
for  syncopation  (GVs)  he  also  heads  the  list.  According  to  the 
rough  image-type  test,  it  is  plain  that  he  possesses  a  certain  amount 
of  auditory  imagery.  His  test  in  pitch-memory  shows  no  marked 
deficiency  in  that  respect.  It  is  of  great  significance,  however,  that 
in  answer  to  the  rough  preliminary  questionnaire  he  reported  that 
he  had  no  interest  at  all  in  verse  and  no  interest  in  the  style  of  prose. 
The  extent  to  which  vowel  quality  in  the  form  of  "tone-color" 
enters  into  the  style  of  both  verse  and  prose  is  quite  obvious.  It 
is  hard  to  say,  however,  just  how  far  "interest"  may  affect  accuracy 
of  perception  in  vowel  quality,  or  how  far  accuracy  of  perception 
may  affect  interest. 

XIV.  Choice  of  "  swing  "  reproductions: 

The  results  under  this  heading  have  been  already  tabulated  under 
section  VII. 

XV.  Intensity  memory : 

Method  of  grading:  O  hears  a  stimulus  intensity,  roughly  pro- 
duced by  the  sound-pendulum,  and  then  identifies  its  triple  occur- 


152 


APPENDIX  III 


rence  in  a  series  of  ten.    Five  degrees  of  intensity  (rough)  are 
employed. 

all  three  right. 

2  right,  1  within  1  degree  of  intensity. 


Grade  1: 
Grade  2: 
Grade  3: 
Grade  4: 
Grade  5: 


1,  1  within  2  degrees. 
2 


doubtful 


1, 1  within  2,  or  1  within  3. 

Grade  6:  all  other  combinations. 

O's  arranged  according  to  grade: 

Grade  1:  O's  No.    1,  2,  3,  4,  8,  10,  11 

Grade  2:  O's  No.    7,  9 

Grade  3:  O    No.    6 

Grade  4:  O    No.  12 

Grade  5:  O    No.    6 

Grade  6:  not  represented 

The  inaccuracies  connected  with  the  use  of  a  sound-pendulum 
even  when  encased  in  a  box  of  heavy  felt  (as  was  the  case  in  the 
present  experiment)  render  the  above  grades  nothing  more  than 
very  rough  approximations.  The  necessity  for  a  short  test  is,  of 
course,  an  even  greater  source  of  unreliability  in  the  results,  which 
must  be  taken  as  merely  suggestive.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
O  No.  10  and  O  No.  2,  whose  grades  are  low  in  some  of  the  earlier 
tests,  are  high  in  respect  to  Intensity  Memory.  O  No.  10,  accord- 
ing to  the  image-type  test,  has  a  certain  amount  of  kinaesthetic 
imagery  which,  in  spite  of  her  lack  of  auditory  imagery,  is,  no  doubt, 
of  assistance  in  the  present  case. 

XVI.  Drum-beat  rhythm  of  texts : 

The  statements  dictated  by  each  observer,  with  regard  to  the 
thought,  mood,  and  tone-color  of  the  three  sentences  (A,  B,  and 
C),  were  intended  merely  to  lead  up  to  the  grading  by  units.  The 
following  statements  made  by  O's  No.  3  and  10  are  given  as 
examples. 

O  No.  3:  Sentence  A  (de  Quincey):  "Thought  seems  strange 
—  solemn  mood  —  ghostly  —  an  uneasy  feeling  when  I 
read  it  —  tone-color  seems  at  first  sombre  and  at  the  end 
harsh." 

Sentence  B   (Newman):  "Thought  seems  progressive  — 
mood  lively  —  tone-color  varied,  the  first  thing  that  struck 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  153 

me  —  suggests  blare  of  trumpet  —  a  lot  of  redness  —  more 
difference  in  the  a's  and  e's  than  in  the  others." 
Sentence  C  (Pater) :  "As  to  thought,  nothing  occurs  to  say 

—  don't  see  much  mood  in  it  —  variety  of  vowels  and  con- 
sonants noticeable,  but  that's  all." 

O  No.  10 :  Sentence  A  (de  Quincey) :  "Author's  mood  dreamy 

—  seems  to  speak  metaphorically  —  doesn't  seem  able  to 
transfer  his  mood  at  all  —  he's  quite  sincere,  I  think,  but 
doesn't  interest  me  at  all  —  rather  annoys  me,  I  think  — 
does  not  make  his  thought  effective  by  his  use  of  metaphor- 
ical language  —  seems  to  bury  it  in  words  —  vowel-color 
dark  —  general   tone-color   smooth,   with   several   rather 
sharp  interruptions  which  break  the  monotony." 
Sentence  B  (Newman):  "Much  more  pleasing  —  seems  to 
dance  along  —  a  certain  amount  of  swinging  speed  to  it  — 
thought   distinct  —  author   seems   able   to   transmit   his 
thought  very  nicely  —  isn't  abrupt  or  awkward  —  rather 
polished  —  thought    involves    visual    images    which    the 
author  has  not  seen  himself,  but  which  he  makes  his  own 

—  light   vowel-color  —  light   consonant-color  —  seems   to 
flow  along." 

Sentence  (Pater):  "Rather  profound  thought  —  idea  of 
depth  —  a  little  bit  vague  in  transferring  his  thought  —  a 
little  bit  wordy  —  vowels  rather  light  —  the  whole  thing 
seems  to  lose  by  that  lightness  —  it  would  have  been  better 
if  he  had  used  darker  vowels  —  consonants  give  mixed 
effect." 

The  replies  given  to  the  questions  asked  on  drum-beat  rhythm 

("How  would  the  series  of  drum-beats  you  have  just  performed 

affect  you,  if  you  had  heard  someone  else  beating  it,  etc.")  were 

also  meant  merely  to  lead  up  to  the  final  grading.    The  following 

abbreviated  version  of  O  No.  8's  replies  is  appended  as  an  example: 

Sentence  A:  Enjoys  —  would  like  it  to  continue  —  it  falls 

into  parts,  definitely  related,  but  dissimilar  —  a  definite 

crescendo  from  rapid  to  slow,  powerful  beats  —  the  beats 

began  to  group  themselves  into  definite  periods   (when 

repeated) — in  the  beginning  this  was  not  true  —  "The 

third  time  I  tapped  it,  the  whole  thing  became  a  unit,  with 

secondary  complications"  —  recurrence  of  periods  which 

were  similar  and  other  periods  which  if  not  similar  had 

definite  accents  and  speeds  —  O  is  interested  because  it 


154  APPENDIX  III 

is  not  just  a  mechanical  beating  —  special  interest  in  beat- 
ing "central  convulsions,"  because  it  seems  to  be  bringing 
things  to  a  climax  and  is  a  variation  of  the  rather  undiffer- 
entiated  rapid  beats  that  came  before  —  the  whole  thing 
represents  a  definite  increase  toward  a  maximum  of  force 
and  vigor. 

Sentence  B:  Much  less  interesting  hi  form,  though  dis- 
tinctly smoother,  livelier  and  lighter  —  rather  monotonous 
—  no  form  as  a  whole  —  it  could  have  stopped  in  the 
middle  or  gone  on  all  day  —  falls  into  unrelated  parts  — 
O  gets  more  "mood"  from  tapping  it  out  than  from  reading 
it  —  a  musing  mood  —  O  adds  that  sentence  A,  in  the  same 
way,  seemed  to  suggest  something  which  is  evident  only 
in  the  drum  beating,  not  in  the  sense. 
Sentence  C:  First  impression  is  that  C  improves  on  ac- 
quaintance —  the  first  tapping  seemed  a  succession  of 
homogeneous  strokes  —  later  a  certain  amount  of  form, 
intermediate  between  A  and  B  —  O  had  a  f eeling  that  if 
he  had  tapped  a  few  more  tunes,  something  more  would 
emerge  —  was  reminded  of  mood  one  gets  from  hearing  a 
Catholic  priest  recite  a  litany. 
The  result  of  the  grading  is  as  follows: 

I  II  III           IV  S'  S" 

(fitness  of  form)  (ease)  (complexity)    (pleas- 

ingness) 
Sentence  A: 

O  No.  1:     3  3  1               2  9  10 

2:      3  3  33  12  15 

3:      3  2  21  8  10 

4:     2  2  22  8  10 

6:      3  1  32  9  12 

6:      3  3  23  11  13 

7:      3  1  33  10  13 

8:      3  3  13  10  11 

9:      3  1  13  8  9 

10:      2  2  33  10  13 

11:      3  2  12  8  9 

12:      3  3  _2                3  Jl  13 

24  114  138 

(The  sum  of  units  assigned  by  each  observer  to  a  sentence  is 
listed  under  S'.    The  same  sum  with  a  weight  of  2  attached  to  the 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  155 

grade  in  Column  III,  is  listed  under  S".  This  counting  twice  of  the 
grade  given  for  complexity  of  problem,  puts  a  premium,  in  the  final 
estimate  (S"),  upon  the  technical  merit  of  the  sentence  from  the 
point  of  view  of  rhythm.  Fitting  rhythm  for  a  difficult  problem 
deserves  more  credit  than  fitting  rhythm  for  an  easy  one.) 


Sentence  B: 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

S" 

S' 

0  No.  1: 

2 

2 

2 

3 

9 

11 

2: 

2 

2 

1 

2 

7 

8 

3: 

2 

1 

3 

3 

9 

12 

4: 

3 

3 

3 

3 

12 

15 

6: 

3 

3 

3 

3 

12 

15 

6: 

3 

2 

3 

2 

10 

13 

7: 

1 

2 

3 

1 

7 

10 

8: 

2 

2 

3 

2 

9 

12 

9: 

2 

3 

3 

2 

10 

13 

10: 

2 

3 

2 

1 

8 

10 

11: 

2 

1 

1 

1 

5 

6 

12: 

1 

1 

_1 

2 

5 

6 

28 

103 

131 

Sentence  C: 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

S' 

S" 

0  No.  1: 

1 

1 

3 

1 

9 

11 

2: 

2 

1 

1 

1 

5 

6 

3: 

1 

3 

3 

2 

9 

12 

4: 

1 

1 

3 

1 

6 

9 

5: 

3 

2 

1 

1 

7 

8 

6: 

2 

1 

2 

1 

6 

8 

7: 

2 

2 

3 

2 

9 

12 

8: 

1 

1 

3 

1 

6 

9 

9: 

1 

1 

2 

1 

5 

7 

10: 

1 

1 

3 

2 

7 

10 

11: 

1 

2 

1 

3 

7 

8 

12: 

2 

1 

3 

1 

7 

10 

28  80  108 

The  maximum  number  of  units  any  sentence  can  receive  is  as 
follows: 

III  S'  S" 

36  144  180 


156  APPENDIX  III 

The  number  of  units  each  sentence  received,  expressed  in  per- 
cent of  the  maximum  in  each  case,  is  as  follows: 

III  S'  S" 

Sentence  A:  .67  .79  .77  (de  Quincey) 

B:  .78  .72  .73  (Newman) 

C:  .78  .56  .60  (Pater) 

The  sentence  from  de  Quincey  thus  receives  a  lower  grade  for 
difficulty  of  the  problem  involved,  but,  in  any  case,  a  higher  final 
grade  than  B  or  C.  Another  group  of  observers,  or  this  same  group 
on  another  occasion,  might  have  graded  the  sentences  nfuch  differ- 
ently. It  in  no  way  follows  that,  because  the  sentence  from  Walter 
Pater  was  graded  low,  some  other  sentence  of  his  might  not  have 
been  graded  very  high.  This  particular  sentence  was  chosen  be- 
cause it  happens  to  be  the  first  in  a  paragraph  much  praised  by 
Saintsbury  (op.  tit.  p.  424):  "in  the  second  paragraph  a  further, 
a  more  obvious,  but  a  much  more  dazzling  and  wonderful  trans- 
formation is  effected." 

O's  No.  6  and  12  agreed  exactly  in  their  distribution  of  units  for 
A;  O's  No.  4  and  5,  for  B;  O's  No.  1,  4,  and  8,  for  C.  In  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  agreements  in  the  final  gradings  (S")  it  may  be  well 
to  remember  the  personnel  of  the  group.  O  No.  4,  professor  of 
English;  O  No.  12,  professor  of  Psychology;  O  No.  7,  professional 
musician;  O  No.  1,  amateur  musician;  O  No.  9,  Japanese  student 
of  philology;  O  No.  3,  graduate  student  of  Psychology  with  strong 
musical  tastes;  O  No.  10,  former  instructor  in 'Psychology,  quite 
clearly  deficient  in  auditory  imagery;  O  No.  8,  professor  of  Psy- 
chology, with  extensive  experience  in  tapping  experiments;  O  No. 
11,  research  student  in  Psychology,  with  no  interest  in  verse  or 
literary  style;  O  No.  5,  research  student  in  Psychology,  with 
little  interest  in  music;  O  No.  6,  instructor  in  Psychology,  with 
some  interest  in  music,  but  practically  no  musical  training;  and 
O  No.  2,  with  an  interest  in  music,  but  no  training. 

List  of  agreements  in  final  grading  of  the  sentences:  (S") 

A:  O's  No.  9,    11  A  and  B:    7,     10 

1,      3,      4 
6,      7,     10,     12 

B:  O's  No.  11,    12  B  and  C:    none 

7,     10 

3,  8 
6,      9 

4,  6 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  157 

C:  O's  No.    1,      4,      8  A  and  C:     1,      4 

6,      6,    11  10,    12 

10,  12 

3,  7 

XVII.   "  Possibility  "  scanning : 

The  elements  considered  are  intensity  (I),  pitch  (P),  duration 
(D),  additional  "weight"  (W).  The  units  are  3,  2,  1,  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  1  means  anything  from  low  to  very  low.  Abso- 
lute zero  is  excluded  except  in  the  case  of  pauses,  which  when  so 
graded,  are  simply  regarded  as  not  existing. 

As  explained  in  Appendix  II,  section  XVII,  the  observer  states 
the  maximum  and  minimum  number  of  units,  for  each  of  the  four 
elements,  which  he  considers  as  both  possible  and  probable  in  his 
particular  case. 

O's  No.  1,  2,  and  3  were  the  only  ones  who  took  part  in  this 
experiment.  Their  results  are  tabulated  below  for  the  following 
opening  phrase  of  the  sentence  from  de  Quincey: 

(from  A)  "For  she  can  approach  only  those" 

for  (pause)  she  (p)  can  (p)  approach  (p)  only  (p)  those 

ONo.  1: 


I: 

2-1 

2-1 

1-1 

1-1 

3-2 

2-1 

1-1 

2-1 

P: 

2-1 

2-1 

1-1 

1-1 

3-1 

2-1 

1-1 

2-1 

D: 

3-1 

(1-0) 

1-1  (0) 

1-1  (0) 

1-1 

3-1 

(2-0) 

2-1 

1-1  (0) 

2-1 

W: 

1-1 

1-1 

1-1 

1-1 

3-1 

2-1 

1-1  (0) 

2-1 

8-4 

(1-0) 

6-4  (0)  4-1  (0) 

4-1 

12-5 

(2-0) 

6-4 

4-4(0) 

6-4 

o 

No.  2: 

I: 

1-1 

2-1 

2-1 

1-1 

3-1 

3-1 

1-1 

3-1 

P: 

2-1 

3-1 

2-1 

2-2 

3-2 

2-1 

2-2 

2-1 

D: 

1-1 

(D 

3-1  (0) 

1-1  (0) 

1-1 

3-1 

(2) 

3-1 

2-1(0) 

3-1 

W: 

3-2 

3-2 

3-1 

1-1 

3-2 

3-1 

1-1 

3-1 

7-5 

(D 

11-5  (0) 

8-1(0) 

5-5 

12-6 

(2) 

11-4 

6-4(0) 

11-4 

0 

No.  3: 

I: 

2-1 

3-1 

3-1 

1-1 

3-3 

3-1 

1-1 

3-1 

P: 

1-1 

1-1 

1-1 

1-1 

3-3 

3-1 

1-1 

1-1 

D: 

1-1 

(0) 

1-1  (0) 

1-1  (0) 

3-1 

3-3 

(2) 

3-1 

1-1  (0) 

3-1 

W: 

3-1 

3-1 

3-1 

3-1 

3-3 

3-3 

3-1 

3-1 

7-4 

(0) 

8-4(0) 

8-4(0) 

8-4 

12-12  (2) 

12-6 

6-4(0) 

1O4 

Maximum 

and 

minimum 

possibilities 

12-4     12-4 

12-4 

12-4     12-4 

12-4 

12-4 

12-4 

158  APPENDIX  III 

(This  would  include  a  range  extending  from  a  soft,  low-voiced, 
even  chant  to  a  loud,  high-voiced,  even  chant.  Pause  possibilities 
are  omitted.) 

The  number  of  permutations  and  combinations  possible  within 
these  limits  (eight  syllables;  nine  choices,  from  4  to  12  inclusive) 
amounts  to  81  choices  for  the  first  two  syllables,  or  9  raised  to  the 
eighth  power  for  the  group  of  eight  syllables,  which  is  43,046,721 
choices  altogether.  The  total  number  of  scannings  possible  from 
the  markings  as  given  by  O  No.  1  amount  to  720.  If  figures  for 
pauses  are  added,  the  number  is  greater.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  a  large  number  of  "possible"  combinations  derived 
from  separate  "probable"  maxima  and  minima  would  be  highly 
improbable,  inasmuch  as  they  would  be  conceived  by  the  observer 
to  be  limited  to  certain  sequences.  In  this  way,  720  must  be 
regarded  as  an  overestimation.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that 
the  number  of  choices  is  tremendous,  and  enough  to  destroy  utterly 
the  possibility  of  depending  on  any  one  scanning  for  the  "rhythm" 
of  a  passage. 

For  O's  No.  2  and  3  the  case  is  even  stronger.  The  gross  figure 
for  O  No.  2's  number  of  choices  is  140,352;  for  O  No.  3,  73,500. 
The  actual  number  of  probable  scannings  is,  of  course,  much  less, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  gradings  would  be  valid  only 
for  certain  sequences.  Psychological  investigations  of  the  facts  of 
rhythmic  experience  have  proved  beyond  any  doubt  that  pitch, 
duration,  and  other  elements  besides  intensity,  are  factors  that 
cannot  be  disregarded.  Any  treatise  that  confines  itself  to  so- 
called  "scanning,"  on  the  basis  of  intensity  alone,  is  sure  to  be 
misleading  and  unscientific. 

XVIII.  Pulse  consciousness : 

O's  No.  1,  7,  8,  and  12  are  easily  conscious  of  pulse  or  heart- 
beats. 

O's  No.  3  and  9  are  dimly  so.  The  results  for  the  rest  are 
negative. 

Data  for  O's  No.  2  and  11  is  lacking. 

XIX.  Breath-segments: 

O  No.  1  feels  exhalation  as  four  times  longer  than  inhalation. 
This  makes  a  rhythm  of  five  for  the  two.  O  No.  10  feels  inhalation 
as  four  and  exhalation  as  three.  This  makes  a  rhythm  of  seven. 
O  No.  8  feels  inhalation  as  one,  exhalation  as  two  (rhythm  of  three). 
O  No.  12:  inhalation  four,  exhalation  five  (rhythm  of  nine).  O 
No.  7:  inhalation  is  vaguely  longer.  O  No.  6  is  conscious  of  no 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  159 

breath-segments.  The  data  for  some  of  the  subjects  is  lacking. 
It  is  of  great  interest,  however,  to  notice  that  even  in  this  rough 
experiment,  certain  observers  breathe  in  a  rhythm  which  is  very 
far  from  the  usual  idea  of  bodily  rhythms  as  simple  or  multiples  of 
two.  Careful  objective  measurement  would  in  every  case,  no  doubt, 
show  that  the  relation  of  inhalation  to  exhalation  is  actually  too 
irregular  to  fall  exactly  into  any  simple  proportion.  It  is  of  the 
greatest  importance,  nevertheless,  to  discover  that  certain  ob- 
servers feel  a  relation  between  the  two  that  comes  very  close  to 
committing  them  to  a  rhythm  of  5,  7,  or  9  in  their  breathing. 
Much  might  develop  from  a  more  careful  investigation  of  subjec- 
tive valuation  for  breath-segments,  when  such  a  valuation  exists 
at  all.  Of  course,  an  observer  might  value  his  exhalation  at  three 
and  his  inhalation  at  four,  and  yet  deny  that  he  was  conscious  of 
a  rhythm  of  seven  in  successive  breaths. 

XX.  Photograph  of  seven-day  memory  reproduction  of  acceleration 
test: 

The  results  are  tabulated  under  section  VII,  sub-section  5. 

XXI.  Judgment  and  line-division: 

See  section  VII,  sub-section  4. 

XXII.  Simple  syncopation :     (813) 

O  taps  half-way  between  the  clicks  of  a  series  given  by  the  time- 
sense  machine  in  which  the  intervals  are  .66  sec.  O's  tap, 
accordingly,  should  come  .33  sec  after  the  click  from  the  machine. 
His  Gross  Constant  Error,  plus  or  minus,  and  his  Average  Variable 
Error  are  calculated  upon  this  basis. 

Arrangement  of  O's  in  relative  order:     (S  =  .33  sec) 

GCEsis  AVEsis 

O  No.  7:  -.03  (%  of  S)  O  No.  11:  .03  (%  of  S) 

11:  -.04  1:  .05 

8:  +.05  12:  .05  + 

1:  +.07  3:  .08 

4:  +.07  9:  .10 

6:  -.07+  7:  .11 

12:  -.10  6:  .24 

6:  -.10+  8:  .44 

3:  +.13  4:  .65 

10:  +.13  2:  .68 

9:  +.17  6:  .73 

2:  -.20  10:  .73 


160  APPENDIX  III 

O  No.  7,  the  professional  musician,  has  the  least  GCE,  and  is 
therefore  on  an  average  more  precise  than  the  rest  of  the  group; 
in  steadiness  (AVE),  he  is  sixth  in  the  list.  O  No.  11  is  high,  both 
in  average  precision  and  steadiness.  O's  No.  10  and  2  are  low  in 
both  respects. 

O's  No.  1,  3,  7,  8,  11,  and  12  found  the  task  of  syncopation 
pleasant;  the  rest  failed  to  find  it  consistently  pleasant;  O's  No. 
4, 9,  and  10  found  it  distinctly  unpleasant;  O  No.  5  was  indifferent. 

XXIII.  Reaction  to  6's  and  7's: 

O  No.  1 :  reacted  to  both  5's  and  7's,  within  ten  seconds,  by  kin- 
sesthetic  feeling  in  the  throat.  Kinsesthesis  for  5's  was  more  diffi- 
cult to  inhibit  than  for  7's. 

O  No.  2 :  no  reaction  for  5's;  throat  kinsesthesis  for  7  rhythm, 
within  ten  seconds,  very  difficult  to  inhibit. 

O  No.  3 :  head  and  larynx  movements  for  5  rhythm,  within  ten 
seconds,  —  fairly  easy  to  inhibit.  No  consciousness  of  breath  affec- 
tion. Responded  to  7's  by  twitch  on  left  side  of  face,  within 
twenty  seconds,  —  fairly  easy  to  inhibit.  Breath  vaguely  affected. 

O  No.  4 :  unpleasant  but  uncontrollable  motor  reaction,  impulse 
to  "pull  away,"  established  for  5's,  within  ten  seconds.  The  un- 
pleasantness was  largely  due  to  the  timbre  of  the  drum-beats,  but 
not  entirely.  The  same  motor  reaction  for  7's,  not  quite  so  un- 
pleasant, was  established  within  fifteen  seconds,  and  proved  very 
difficult  to  inhibit. 

O  No.  6 :  no  reaction  to  5's  or  7's. 

O  No.  6:  reacted  to  5's,  within  twenty  seconds,  by  dip  of  head 
for  the  accents,  and  vague  eye  or  eyelid  or  throat  movements  for 
the  smaller  beats,  difficult  to  inhibit.  Reacted  for  7's,  within  ten 
seconds,  with  same  type  of  movements  as  before,  very  difficult  to 
inhibit. 

O  No.  7:  reacted  to  5's  at  once  by  wave  movement  up  his  back; 
established  7's,  within  ten  seconds,  by  movement  of  "stiffening," 
easy  to  inhibit. 

O  No.  8:  5's  within  twenty  seconds,  nodding  of  head  up  and 
down.  An  upward  movement  on  the  accent  and  forward  move- 
ments in  segments  that  roughly  coincided  with  the  following 
beats  —  all  difficult  to  inhibit.  7's  within  ten  seconds,  motor  reac- 
tion localized  in  eyeball  as  motion  up  and  to  the  left  on  the  accent 
of  each  group,  then  more  slowly  downward  but  not  in  any  definite 
segments  —  all  difficult  to  inhibit.  After  well  under  way,  O  in- 
haled on  one  accent,  exhaled  on  the  next. 


EXPERIMENTAL   DATA  161 

O  No.  9:  5's  within  fifteen  seconds,  head  movements,  easy  to 
inhibit;  7's  within  fifteen  seconds,  head  movements,  more  diffi- 
cult to  inhibit. 

O  No.  10:  no  motor  response  to  5's  or  7's. 

O  No.  11:  5's  within  twenty-five  seconds,  movement  of  left 
hand  for  accents,  nothing  for  subordinate  beats,  no  breath  affec- 
tion. Reaction  easy  to  inhibit.  No  reaction  for  7's. 

O  No.  12:  uncontrollable  motor  response  in  throat  for  5's,  fol- 
lowed the  rhythm  with  a  kind  of  visual  diagram;  "  too  intro- 
spective" for  motor  reaction  to  7's,  though  it  would  have  been 
"  natural  to  beat  time." 

O's  No.  5  and  10  were  the  only  ones  who  did  not  react  to  either 
5's  or  7's.  O  No.  4  reacted,  but  found  it  unpleasant.  O  No.  2 
reacted  only  to  7's;  O's  No.  11  and  12,  only  to  5's. 

XXIV.     Complex  syncopation  (involving  regulated  practice) : 

O  attempts  to  tap  5's  while  the  machine  clicks  7's.  E  gives  him 
various  helps,  all  connected  with  the  substitution  of  a  "rhythmic 
tune  "  instead  of  any  conscious  "  thinking  out "  of  the  task.  The 
correct  length  of  interval  (.936  sec),  for  a  fifth  of  the  gross  time  cov- 
ered by  seven  clicks  of  the  machine,  is  taken  as  the  standard  which 
O  is  to  approach.  His  GCE  and  AVE  are  determined  with  refer- 
ence to  the  average  of  his  first  five  intervals. 
Arrangement  of  O's  in  relative  order: 

GCEcs  AVEcs 

O  No.  1: 
11: 
12: 

7: 

8: 

6: 

3: 

4: 
10: 

9: 

2: 

6: 

O's  No.  1,  7,  11,  and  12  rank  highest  in  average  precision;  O's 
No.  4, 11,  7,  and  1,  in  steadiness.  O's  No.  10  and  9  are  consistently 
low.  All  of  the  observers  improved  tremendously  during  the 
stages  of  practice  allowed  them  before  the  final  record.  Both  O's 


-.009  (  %  of  .936  sec) 

ONo.    4: 

.06 

+.01 

11: 

.09 

+.015 

7: 

.11 

-.02 

1: 

.12 

-.03 

8: 

.13 

-.06 

12: 

.18 

-.08 

2: 

.18  + 

-.08  + 

6: 

.18  + 

-.16 

3: 

.21 

+.20 

5: 

.21  + 

+.28 

10: 

.31 

-.40 

9: 

.48 

162  APPENDIX  III 

No.  10  and  9,  who  found  great  difficulty  in  the  task  at  first,  suc- 
ceeded, by  means  of  the  rhythmic  tune,  in  achieving  encouraging 
results. 

XXV.  Individual  "  swing": 

The  syllables  marked  by  asterisks  in  the  following  arrangement 
of  words  are  tapped  upon  the  kymograph.3  The  intervals  from 
asterisk  to  asterisk  are  measured  for  each  observer: 

******  * 

Prose  is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  prose  is  prose  —  while  poetry 

*  *          *         *  *  * 

is  opposed  to  prose,  prose-poetry  is  opposed  to  any  poetry  that 

*  * 

may  be  composed  in  any  other  way  than  that  of  prose. 

The  intervals  vary  in  respect  to  "filling,"  although  none,  not 
even  the  second  and  fourth  or  ninth  and  tenth,  can  be  considered 
as  absolutely  "empty."  The  subjective  effect  of  "filling"  upon 
the  apparent  duration  of  intervals  has  been  discussed  in  Chapter 
II. 

The  following  measurements  are  in  millimeters,  as  recorded  on 
the  smoked  drum  of  the  kymograph.  1  mm  =  .06  sec. 

Intervals: 

1      2       3       4       5  6       7       8       9  10     11     12  13  14 
ONo: 

1:    8       9       8       9       8       8.5    8     11.518.6  9     11.314  24  32 

2:10     12     20     21     10  28     11.511     17  5     15     15  23  29 

3:14     20     18     20     11  23     14     23     20.5  7     21     15  23  39 

4:  14     15     15     15     14  22     14     10     17  11     18     16  25  38 

5:13.512     14     18     15  22.518.511     16  14     21.518  21  35 

6:    8.5    8.5   8     10       7  12.5    7.5   6       9  5       8       9  18  26.5 

7:11  13.312  15  14  14.513  11  13  7  14  13  23  31 

8:  14  16.5  14.5  16.5  12  20.5  15.5  10.5  18.5  6.5  15  14  23  31 

9:11     16     10     16       8  22     14     12     22  7     16     19  25.536 

10:15     15     15.316.515.525     15     15     16  9     14.525  26.532 

11:    9.5  12.5    9.5  13.5    9.3  18.3    9.5    8.5  16  5.5  11     14  19  31 

12 :  10     12     10.5  12     11  20     12       9     16  6.5  19     16.5  25  37 


3  A  series  of  experiments  is  now  being  planned,  in  which  the  observer 
utters  the  arrangement  of  words  without  mechanical  constraints  of  any 
sort.  The  performance  is  recorded  by  sound-photography. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  163 

It  would  be  easy  to  draw  misleading  inferences  from  the  above 
figures,  especially  since  subjective  impressions  so  largely  deter- 
mine rhythmic  values.  Two  intervals  can  seem  equal  which  differ 
considerably  in  objective  measurement,  and  the  nature  of  "filling" 
in  language  is  infinitely  more  complex  than  a  mere  enumeration  of 
syllables.  The  subjective  value  of  an  interval  in  speech  depends 
upon  the  distractive  value,  reacting  upon  attention,  not  only  of 
"filling"  but  also  of  the  two  limits  or  boundaries  of  the  interval.* 
In  the  case  of  speech,  the  nature  of  the  filling  and  the  boundaries 
involves  elements  of  too  subtle  a  quality  ever  to  be  detected  in  a 
quantitative  form.  With  such  precautions  duly  in  mind,  however, 
it  is  only  proper  that  the  objective  relations  should  be  examined 
at  least. 

Intervals  1,  3,  and  5,  for  instance,  present  on  the  surface  similar 
filling  and  similar  boundaries.  The  same  is  true  of  intervals  2 
and  4.  Interval  9  is  different  because  of  the  nature  of  the  material 
beyond  the  boundaries  —  a  situation  which  has  certainly  not  been 
fully  investigated  even  in  the  most  recent  treatises  on  time-esti- 
mation. Intervals  12,  13,  and  14  represent  in  mere  syllable  filling 
an  obvious,  not  necessarily  regular,  progression  in  length.  It  is, 
accordingly,  of  interest  to  see  what  objective  treatment  in  the 
matter  of  mere  duration  they  receive  from  the  various  observers, 
especially  those  who,  in  other  tests,  have  shown  marked  tendencies 
in  any  direction.  O's  No.  1,  6,  11,  and  12  ranked  high  in  both 
syncopation  and  acceleration.  O's  No.  2,  9,  and  10  were  fairly 
low  in  both.  Their  records,  accordingly,  would  be  particularly 
significant. 

Table  I:  Intervals  1,    3,    5,  and  2,    4:  (Instances  of  regularity) 

1,  3,     5  equal  in  the  case  of  O's  No.  1  and  11  (approx.) 

1  E  II       II       II  II       II       II  •  •    n  "A 

2,  4  "    "    "      "    «     «      "  1,  3,  4,  8,  9,  12 

1,    3,     5  form  a  regularly  retarding  progression  in  the 
case  of  O's  No.  10  and  12 

O's  No.  1  and  12  are  the  only  ones  in  which  both  groups  of  in- 
tervals display  objective  regularity.  The  regularity  is  one  of 
equality  with  O  No.  1;  it  is  partly  one  of  equality  and  one  of 
progression  with  O  No.  12.  O's  No.  4  and  11  rank  next,  perhaps, 
to  O's  No.  1  and  12.  O  No.  7  shows  an  irregularly  retarding  pro- 
gression; while  O's  No.  6  and  9  show  an  irregularly  accelerating 


*  Benussi,  op.  cit.,  p.  481. 


164  APPENDIX  III 

progression,  in  the  relations  of  intervals  1,  3,  5.  O  No.  10  is  about 
on  the  same  level  with  O  No.  2,  but  her  regular  retarding  pro- 
gression is  significant,  especially  since  in  all  the  tests  where  the 
subject  came  up,  she  professed  an  interest  in  acceleration  and 
retardation,  as  opposed  to  her  lack  of  interest  in  syncopation. 

Table  II:   Intervals  12,     13,    14    (a,  b,  c): 
Let    L  =  c/b  -b/a 

M  =    (c  -b)  -(b  -a) 

N 

b/ 
O  No. 


b/a 

b/a 

c/b 

L 

M 

N 

1: 

1.715 

1.333 

-.38 

+.12  sec. 

5:   4  (approx.) 

2: 

1.54 

1.18 

-.36 

-.12 

11:   8 

3: 

1.54 

1.69 

+.15 

+.48 

15:17 

4: 

1.56 

1.52 

-.04 

+.24 

1:   1 

5: 

1.16 

1.67 

+.51 

+.66 

7:10 

6: 

2.00 

1.47 

-.53 

-.03 

4:   3 

7: 

1.77 

1.35 

-.42 

-.12 

4:   3 

8: 

1.64 

1.35 

-.29 

-.06 

5:   4 

9: 

1.333 

1.41 

+.08 

+.24 

13:14 

10: 

1.06 

1.20 

+.14 

+.24 

5:   6 

11: 

1.35 

1.54 

+.29 

+.42 

5:   4 

12: 

1.52 

1.47 

-.05 

+.21 

1:    1 

With  regard  to  intervals  12,  13,  14,  the  greatest  caution  is  neces- 
sary before  pronouncing  judgments.  All  three  intervals  are  "filled" 
to  a  high  degree  —  that  is,  they  contain  no  imperative  punctua- 
tional  pauses,  and  can  be  considered  as  a  succession  of  syllables 
with  pauses  that  are  likely  to  be  short,  when  introduced  at  all. 
It  is  perfectly  possible  to  cover  the  three  intervals  with  one  breath. 
The  "boundaries"  of  the  intervals  are  fairly  important  syllables 
with  approximate  equality  of  timbre  ("po,"  "po,"  "po,"  and 
"pro").  According  to  Benussi6  the  subjective  time  value  of  an 
interval  diminishes  when  the  two  limits  are  held  together  firmly  as 
a  group,  with  striking  similarity  as  their  bond.  Since  this  condi- 
tion applies  fairly  well  to  all  three  of  the  intervals,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  their  relations  to  each  other  will  not  be  disturbed  by 
this  particular  factor,  however  much  shorter  their  gross  sum 
might  appear  to  consciousness  on  account  of  the  ease  with  which 
their  boundaries  can  be  held  together. 


6  Benussi,  op.  cit.,  p.  481. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  165 

Intervals  filled  with  mental  work,  whether  hard  or  easy,  accord- 
ing to  Benussi,*  appear  shorter  for  this  reason.  In  this  matter 
again  the  relations  of  the  three  intervals  are  not  disturbed.  Wundt 7 
gives  the  following  general  tendencies  in  connection  with  filling:  a 
"short"  filled  interval  (from  .5  to  1.5  sec.  in  length)  seems  longer 
than  an  equal  empty  one;  a  "long"  filled  interval  (over  2  sec.) 
seems  usually  shorter.  An  interval  measuring  no  more  than  25  mm 
on  the  drum  (1.5  sec.),  would,  accordingly,  seem  longer  or  slower; 
one  measuring  over  34  mm  (2.04  sec.)  would  be  likely  to  seem  shorter 
or  faster  than  its  objective  length  would  indicate.  Between  25  mm 
and  34  mm  would  lie  an  indifference  point  where  subjective  dis- 
tortion, on  this  particular  ground,  would  not  be  likely  to  occur. 
This,  of  course,  is  a  condition  quite  capable  of  distorting  relations 
between  two  intervals  such  as  1  second  and  3  seconds,  in  which  the 
first  might  seem  like  1.1,  for  instance,  and  the  second  like  2.9. 
The  objective  simple  proportion  of  1:3  would  thus  be  quite  de- 
stroyed. If,  however,  none  of  the  three  intervals  are  less  than 
14  mm  or  greater  than  38  mm,  which  covers  most  of  the  measure- 
ments for  the  group  of  observers,  it  might  be  taken  for  granted  that 
the  amount  of  distortion  due  to  this  particular  factor  in  the  relations 
of  the  intervals  would  be  comparatively  small.  The  really  great 
and  forever  unmeasurable  factor  is  the  individual  distribution  of 
attention  over  the  objective  field,  never  alike  for  any  two  persons 
and  practically  never  alike  for  the  same  person  on  two  different 
occasions.  The  only  satisfaction  we  can  extract  from  the  discovery 
of  objective  regularity  in  the  measurements  of  the  intervals  is  due 
to  the  fact  that,  however  much  we  may  resent  long  stretches  of 
mechanically  regular  rhythms,  we  all  respond  more  or  less  to  short 
stretches  of  exact  rhythm.  We  should  probably  find  it  very  hard 
to  distinguish  at  all  between  longer  stretches  of  regularly  acceler- 
ating or  retarding  beats  and  the  slightly  varied  progressions  which 
would  occur  when  our  favorite  pianist,  for  instance,  performed  the 
acceleration  or  retarding  in  question.  In  considering  this  matter 
we  must  be  very  careful  to  remember  that  we  are  thinking  of  rhythm 
apart  from  tone  and  other  factors. 

Keeping  all  this  in  mind  as  a  check  upon  the  final  value  of  any 
rough  inferences  that  may  be  made,  the  most  interesting  thing 
to  notice  in  the  table  for  intervals  12,  13,  and  14,  is  that  O's  No.  4 
and  12,  especially  O  No.  4,  come  very  close  to  a  perfectly  regular 
geometrical  progression  with  the  same  moving  ratio  in  both  cases: 


•  Benussi,  op.  til.,  p.  286.  7  Wundt,  op.  tit.,  Ill,  p.  49. 


166  APPENDIX  III 

a:b:  :b:c:  :2:3.  Expressed  as  N(c/b:b/a)  this  becomes,  as  in 
the  table,  1:1. 

O's  No.  2,  3,  and  9,  who  were  low  in  the  results  for  syncopation 
and  acceleration  in  previous  tests,  are  in  this  case  the  furthest  from 
reaching  simple  ratios.  O's  No.  5,  6,  and  10,  however,  who  were 
low  in  the  tests  referred  to,  achieve  fairly  simple  ratios.  O  No.  5's 
figures,  according  to  one  form  of  approximation,  come  close  to  a 
ratio  of  2:  3.  O  No.  7,  the  professional  musician,  has  one  of  the 
more  simple  ratios. 

The  matter  of  increase  or  decrease  in  the  size  of  the  increment 
of  retardation,  which  occurs  in  all  cases,  is  rather  puzzling.  With 
O's  No.  2  and  7  it  decreases  in  size;  with  O's  No.  6  and  8  it  re- 
mains about  the  same;  but  with  all  the  other  eight  observers  it 
increases,  the  increase  varying  from  .12  sec.  to  .66  sec.  (O  No.  6). 
The  larger  amounts,  of  course,  indicate  a  tendency  to  a  pronounced 
retarding.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  although  in- 
terval 14  may  be  made  much  longer  than  its  predecessors,  it  is 
perfectly  possible  for  the  observer  to  have  felt  it,  not  at  all  as  an 
experience  of  retarded  articulatory  motion,  but  rather  as  an  experi- 
ence of  great  hurry  on  account  of  having  to  utter  so  many  syllables 
between  the  two  marked  accents.  This  sense  of  hurry  probably  be- 
gins for  nearly  every  one,  according  to  Wundt's  figures  for  filled 
intervals,  as  soon  as  the  interval  exceeds  2  seconds  in  length. 
Such  intervals  occurred  as  the  last  of  the  series  of  three  for  O's 
No.  3,  4,  6,  9,  and  12.  O  No.  6,  accordingly,  may  easily  have  had 
this  feeling  of  hurry  to  some  extent,  although  he  was  retarding 
relatively  more  than  any  one  else  in  the  whole  group  in  his  last 
interval. 

Comparing  the  results  from  both  tables  (with  regard  to  inter- 
vals 1,  3,  5;  2,  4;  and  12,  13,  14),  it  is  clear,  at  any  rate,  that  O 
No.  1  shows  objective  precision  in  both;  O  No.  12,  precision  and 
regularity  in  progression;  O  No.  7  shows  irregularity  in  the  first 
table,  but  is  one  of  the  four  whose  N  values  in  the  second  table 
suggest  the  most  simple  forms  of  progression;  O  No.  4  shows 
regularity  of  progression;  and  some  precision;  O  No.  11,  some 
precision  and  some  regularity  of  progression;  O  No.  10,  a  good 
deal  of  regularity  of  progression;  O's  No.  2  and  9,  a  good  deal  of 
irregularity;  O's  No.  5  and  6,  some  regularity  but  little  precision; 
O  No.  8,  regularity  and  some  precision;  O  No.  3,  some  precision, 
but  much  irregularity  of  progression.  Just  what  any  of  them  really 
"felt"  in  the  way  of  a  rhythmic  experience  during  their  perform- 
ance, is  another  matter  entirely. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  167 

XXVI.  Musical  "  swing  " : 

The  object  of  this  experiment  is  chiefly  to  make  clear  the  fact  that 
the  conventional  notation,  when  denoting  a  perfectly  precise  rela- 
tion, is  attended  by  all  sorts  of  irregularities  in  the  actual  perform- 
ance. If  tapping,  according  to  Wallin  and  others,  "triples"  the 
regularity  of  rhythmic  performances,  any  irregularities  found  when 
such  a  form  of  reproduction  is  employed  should  be  given  all  the 
more  weight.  Their  source,  either  in  cases  of  so-called  "agogic" 
accent  (in  which  added  duration  is  used  as  a  means  of  emphasis  in 
the  place  of  added  stress)  or  in  mere  inaccuracy  on  the  part  of  the 
performer,  is  not  discussed  at  present. 

The  following  figures  represent  drum-record  measurements  of  the 
first  three  notes  in  the  melody  of  "My  Country  'tis  of  Thee," 
which  in  the  conventional  notation  are  written  as  of  equal  value: 

ONo.    1:  .36  .42  .38  sec.  Range:  .06  sec. 

2:  .30  .33  .33  .03 

3:  .72  .72  .78  .06 

4:  .60  .54  .48  .12 

5:  .30  .30  .30  .00 

6:  .45  .24  .30  .23 

7:  .42  .45  .48  .06 

8:  .60  .51  .50  .10 

9:  .51  .57         J:4    .60  .09 

10:  .78  .72  .60  .18 

11:  .48  .48  .42  .06 

12:  .54  .54  .54  .00 

O's  No.  5  and  12  gave  the  notes  equal  value;  the  other  ten  ob- 
servers covered  a  range  of  from  .03  sec.  (O  No.  2)  to  .23  (O.  No.  6). 

O  No.  1  made  the  second  note  the  longest. 

O's  No.  3,  7,  9  made  the  last  note  longest. 

O's  No.  4,  6,  8,  10  made  the  first  note  longest. 

O  No.  11  made  the  first  and  second  equal  and  longer  than  the 
third. 

O  No.  2  made  the  second  and  third  equal  and  longer  than  the 
first. 

It  is  easy  to  find  reasons  in  Riemann's  "agogic"  accent  to  ex- 
plain the  distortions  in  the  case  of  O's  No.  1,  4,  6,  8,  and  10.  In 
the  case  of  O's  No.  3,  7,  and  9  another  form  of  "agogic"  accent  in 
which  the  interval  before  the  note  to  be  accented  is  lengthened, 
comes  into  play. 

If  the  above  results  are  obtained  in  spite  of  the  regulating  effect 


168  APPENDIX  HI 

of  tapping,  it  ought  to  be  quite  clear  that  music  of  a  simple  metri- 
cal pattern  involves  objective  irregularities  that  cover  a  compara- 
tively large  range  in  a  short  space  of  time.  This  fact  should  be 
kept  constantly  in  mind  by  those  who  fail  to  see  how  easy  it  is  to 
organize  subjectively,  upon  an  essentially  musical  basis,  the  irregu- 
lar intervals  of  prose.  It  can  hardly  be  expected,  however,  that 
the  more  or  less  unmusical  or  unrhythmical  person  can  ever  thor- 
oroughly  organize  anything  upon  a  musical  basis.  For  such  a 
person  prose,  and  verse,  and  music  itself,  may  give  something 
approaching  a  rhythmic  satisfaction,  but  never  the  really  com- 
plete experience. 
XXVH.  Phonograph  test: 

O  hears  five  series  of  drum-beats  reproduced  by  the  phonograph. 
He  has  no  information  as  to  their  source.  The  first  is  a  sentence 
from  Walter  Pater;  the  second,  a  passage  of  music  by  Chopin;  the 
third,  a  sentence  from  Henry  James;  the  fourth,  a  haphazard 
arrangement  of  words ;  the  fifth,  a  haphazard  arrangement  of  musi- 
cal notes.  These  are  referred  to  below  as  Series  1,  2,  3,  4,  5. 

Grading  of  series  for  pleasantness: 

Units  of  relative  rank  (5,  4,  3,  2,  1)  were  assigned  by  O's  after 
the  first  hearing  and  after  the  fourth.  5  stands  for  highest  and  1 
for  lowest.  Some  of  the  O's  were  unable  to  grade  the  series  after 
only  one  hearing.  S  (series)  2  and  4  were  graded  as  most  pleasant 
twice  (by  two  O's).  No  other  two  O's  agreed  on  their  choice  of 
the  most  pleasant.  After  the  fourth  hearing,  S  1  and  2,  the  passage 
from  Pater  and  the  music  from  Chopin,  were  graded  as  most  pleas- 
ant by  three  O's ;  S  5,  the  haphazard  music,  was  graded  as  most 
pleasant  on  the  fourth  hearing  by  O's  No.  4  and  6.  S  3  and  4, 
James  and  the  haphazard  prose,  were  not  graded  as  most  pleasant 
by  anyone,  but  James  was  graded  with  four  units  by  O's  No.  3,  8, 
and  11;  and  haphazard  prose,  with  four  units  by  O's  No.  4  and  12. 

Grading  for  elusiveness: 

On  the  first  hearing,  Pater  was  graded  as  the  most  elusive  by  O's 
No.  6, 10,  and  12;  and  with  four  units,  by  O's  No.  4,  6,  and  7.  The 
regular  music  and  haphazard  prose  were  graded  5  by  two  O's.  On 
the  fourth  hearing,  the  haphazard  music  was  graded  as  most  elu- 
sive by  O's  No.  3,  4,  9,  and  10;  Chopin,  by  O's  No.  2  and  8;  hap- 
hazard prose,  by  O's  No.  11  and  12;  Pater,  by  O  No.  6;  James, 
by  no  one.  The  highest  number  of  units  of  elusiveness  assigned  to 
James  was  three,  given  by  O's  No.  5,  8,  and  9.  0  No.  7  insisted 
that,  after  a  fourth  hearing,  none  of  the  series  could  be  graded  as 
elusive. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  169 

They  all  suggested  to  him  definite  musical  themes. 

Grading  for  ease  in  beating  time: 

Each  of  the  series  was  assigned  units  (3,  2,  1)  for  ease  and  satis- 
faction on  the  part  of  O,  in  his  attempt  to  beat  time  to  them.  1 
includes  very  "low";  absolute  zero  is  excluded. 

Arrangement  of  series  in  regular  order: 

A:  strict  unit:    Series  2:  17  (total  number  of  units  received) 

"    1:  16 

"    5:  15 

"    4:  14 

"    3:  12 

B:  elastic  unit:  Series  3:  19 

"    5:  19 

"    2:  18 

"    4:  16 

"    1:  15 

With  a  strict  unit,  the  Chopin  music  and  the  passage  from 
Pater  were  considered  the  most  satisfactory.  James  was  rated 
last.  With  an  elastic  unit  most  of  the  records  received  higher 
grades,  but  the  haphazard  music  was  found  to  be  most  satisfactory. 
Haphazard  music  received  a  grade  of  three,  meaning  "a  high  degree 
of  satisfaction,"  from  O's  No.  2,  4,  6,  and  8.  James  received  a 
grade  of  three  from  O's  No.  6,  8,  10,  and  12.  The  haphazard  prose 
received  three  from  O's  No.  4  and  8.  Chopin  received  the  lowest 
grade  from  O's  No.  2,  4,  and  5.  O  No.  1,  having  made  the  records, 
did  not  take  part  in  the  test. 

The  results  for  identifying  the  source  of  each  of  the  five  series 
were  as  follows:  (P  =  prose,  M  =  music,  HP  =  haphazard  prose, 
HM  =  haphazard  music) 

O's  No.  2       3       4       6       6       78       9       10     11     12     (actually) 
S1MPPHPPMPPPPP  (P) 

S  2     HM  M     M     HM  M     M  M     M     M     M     P  (M) 

8  3     P      P      HM  P      P      M  P      HP  HP  HM  P  (P) 

S  4     HP  HP  P      P      HP   M  HM  P      P      P      HP        (HP) 
S  5     M     HM  HP   M     HM  M  HP  HM  HM  HP  HM       (HM) 

O's  No.  2,  9,  and  10  were  the  only  ones  who  marked  any  of  their 
judgments  with  an  "a"  (implying  certainty). 

As  a  result  of  the  above  tabulation,  it  is  evident  that  Pater  was 
marked  as  prose  seven  times,  as  music  three  times,  and  as  haphazard 
prose  once.  James  was  marked  once  as  music,  and  twice  as  hap- 


170  APPENDIX  III 

hazard  music;  six  times  as  regular  prose,  twice  as  haphazard  prose. 
The  total  markings  are  as  follows: 

(marked  as)  P  M  HP  HM 

S  1    (Pater)  7310 

S  2    (Chopin)  1802 

S  3    (James)  6122 

S  4    (Haph.  P)  5141 

S  5    (Haph.  M)  0335 

0  No.  7  insisted  on  marking  all  five  as  giving  him  the  impression 
of  regular  music.  No  one  marked  haphazard  music  as  prose. 

XXVin.   Questionnaire : 

Results: 

1.  O's  No.  2,  3,  4,  6,  6,  7,  8,  9,  11,  12  enjoy  effects  of  syncopation 
when  understood: 

O  No.  10  enjoys  very  little: 

2.  O's  No.  2,  3,  4,  6,  6,  7,  8,  10,  12  enjoy  effects  of  acceleration: 
O's  No.  2,  3,  4,  6,  6,  7  very  much: 

O's  No.  8  and  12  fairly  well: 
O  No.  11  very  little: 
O  No.  9  not  at  all: 

3.  O's  No.  1  (data  from  section  I),  6,  6,  8, 11  prefer  simple  balance: 
O's  No.  2,  4,  7,  10  prefer  occult  balance: 

O's  No.  3,  9,  12  express  a  divided  interest: 

4.  O's  No.  3,  4,  5,  7,  8,  9,  12  enjoy  "unitary"  pulses: 
O's  No.  2,  (4),  (8),  (9),  (12)  not  very  much: 

O's  No.  6,  10,  11  not  at  all: 

O's  No  3,  6,  and  7  are  the  only  ones  who  clearly  committed 
themselves  to  real  enjoyment.  The  value  of  these  rough  answers 
must  not  be  pressed  too  far.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  thing 
to  notice  is  the  small  amount  of  pleasure  that  O  No.  11  derives 
from  effects  of  acceleration,  after  having  scored  so  high  in  the  tests 
in  which  it  figures. 

XXIX.  Schedule  tests: 

A.  Series  5:  O  hears  S  5  (haphazard  music)  again,  and  states  its 
effect  upon  him  (pleasant,  unpleasant,  or  indifferent).  He  then 
hears  it  with  schedule  I  (section  XXIX,  Appendix  II),  and  later 
grades  the  schedule  with  units  (3,  2,  1)  for  the  amount  of  interest 
it  adds  to  his  hearing  of  the  drum-beats.  In  case  the  schedule 
clearly  adds  no  interest,  which  was  reported  by  one  observer,  a 
grade  of  zero  is  allowed.  It  should  be  remembered,  however, 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  171 

that  in  all  cases  where  3,  2,  and  1  are  used  as  units,  1  is  supposed 
to  cover  the  grade  of  "very  low."  After  reporting  on  schedule  I, 
O  is  given  a  similar  test  with  schedule  II. 

Results: 

1.  O's  No.  4,  7,  8  announce  pleasant  effect  from  Series  5  (without 

schedules) 

O's  No.  3,  6,  6,  10,  11,  indifference  or  "very  little  interest": 
O's  No.  2,  9,  12,  unpleasant  effect: 

2.  Schedule  I:  (units  of  interest  added  to  S  5) 
O's  No.  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 

13311302  (1)0     1  Total  -  16  units. 

0  No.  10  failed  to  express  her  grading  in  units,  but  reported 
that  E's  humming  the  schedule  added  a  small  amount  of 
interest. 

3.  Schedule  II: 

O's  No.  2  3  4  6  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 

31321121  (2)    1     1  Total  =  18  units. 

O  No.  10  found  no  interest  in  Schedule  II  except  when 
hummed,  but  in  that  case  it  added  more  interest  than  Sched- 
ule I. 

B.   Series  1:  (Pater) 

1.  O's  No.  3,  4,  8,  10,  11  announce  pleasant  effect  from  S  1  (with- 
out schedules): 

O's  No.  2,  6,  6,  7,  indifference: 

O  No.  9,  unpleasant  effect: 

(no  report  was  received  from  O  No.  12) : 

2.  Schedule  I: 

O's  No.  2  3  4  6  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 

32322322  (1)    0    2  Total  =  21  units. 

3.  Schedule  II: 

O's  No.  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 

23311201  (0)    1    2  Total  -  16  units. 

The  reports  for  Schedule  I  in  connection  with  the  passage 
of  prose  from  Pater  is  significant.  It  means  that  ten  observers 
out  of  eleven  (O  No.  1,  having  made  the  drum-beat  records, 
could  not  take  part  in  the  test)  found  various  degrees  of  satis- 
faction in  listening  to  a  series  of  prose  beats,  according  to  a 


172  APPENDIX  III 

schedule  which  imposed  upon  the  series  an  elastic  temporal 
unit,  grouped  in  three-time.  What  is  more  significant  is  that 
three  of  the  observers  reported  the  highest  grade  of  added  interest 
(3  meaning  "very  much")  and  six  reported  a  grade  of  2.  One 
notable  fact,  of  course,  is  that  O  No.  11,  whose  rank  in  the  tests 
for  accuracy  in  syncopation  and  the  reproduction  of  the  "swing" 
series  was  among  the  highest,  reports  so  little  interest  in  the 
schedules,  as  a  means  of  organizing  elusive  impressions  of 
rhythm.  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
this  observer  professes  no  interest  either  in  verse  or  literary 
style. 

XXX.   Questionnaire : 

1.  O's  No.  4,  7,  and  12  feel  that  they  can  enjoy  the  rhythm  of  a 
passage,  at  times,  without  any  motor  response.     O  No.  4's 
enjoyment  is  concerned  with  the  discovery  of  amusing  or  un- 
expected organization  (as  in  following  the  drum-beat  records 
with  a  schedule).    O  No.  12's  experience  seems  to  be  concerned 
with  sound  images;   O  No.  7's,  with  images  of  a  more  indefi- 
nite nature.    All  the  other  eight  observers  depend  upon  motor 
response  for  then-  rhythmic  experiences. 

2.  All  the  O's,  except  No.  3,  find  that  a  motor  response  must  be 
continued  in  the  form  of  a  series  in  order  to  be  satisfactory.    It 
must  always  be  equivalent  to  "beating  time"  in  some  way. 

3.  All  the  O's  report  that  an  elastic  unit  (accelerating  and  retarding) 
is  necessary  in  attempting  to  beat  time  to  prose.    O  No.  8  makes 
the  qualification  that  for  short  passages  one  can  conceive  of 
beating  a  strict  time-unit. 

4.  All  the  O's,  except  O  No.  2,  who  failed  to  find  the  question 
clear,  agree  that  the  recurrence  of  groups  of  beats  irrespective 
of  a  time-unit  is  not  so  pleasurable  as  when  the  groups  recur 
in  connection  with  a  time-unit.     Some  of  the  O's  are  very 
emphatic  about  this.     O  No.  10  declares  that  the  recurrence 
would  be  "very  disagreeable"  unless  "periodic."     This  seems 
to  be  very  strong  evidence  against  the  possibility  of  founding 
a  theory  of  versification  upon  anything  but  a  temporal  basis 
(time,  of  course,  meaning  not  objective,  but  subjective  time). 
It  must  not  be  denied,  however,  that  a  certain  amount  of 
pleasure  ensues  from  the  recognition  of  mere  recurrence.    The 
point  is  that  every  rhythmic  "impression"  seems,  with  this 
group  of  O's,  to  be  heightened  as  soon  as  it  is  felt  to  be  organized 
upon  a  time  basis. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  173 

XXXI.  Unitary  music :  (first  test) 

The  O's  pass  judgment  upon  passages  in  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott, 
in  which  the  rhythm  is  delivered  separately  from  the  melody  and 
harmony. 

"Unitary"  means  that  the  time  unit  is  felt  as  a  series  of  pulses, 
not  grouped  according  to  a  fixed  scheme,  such  as  two-time,  three- 
time,  etc.,  continued  throughout.  The  unit,  therefore,  in  its  con- 
ception, is  more  like  the  "boom"  —  "boom"  —  "boom"  of  a 
tom-tom,  very  much  reduced,  of  course.  It  continually  falls  into 
groups  of  some  sort,  but  the  point  is  that  no  one  form  of  grouping 
is  repeated  throughout,  as  a  fixed  pattern. 

The  results  for  the  passage  used  in  the  first  test  are  as  follows: 

O  No.  1:  first  hearing:  rhythm  interesting,  but  the  unit  vague. 

second  hearing:  rhythm  more  interesting,  fundamental 
unit  clear,  not  repeated  as  a  group;   i.e.,  repeated 
as  "unitary  pulses." 
0  No.    2:      1st:  partly  pleasant. 

2nd:  agreeable,  O  felt  unitary  pulses. 
O  No.    3:      1st:  indifferent,  O  felt  unit  (?). 

2nd:  more  pleasant. 
O  No.    4:      1st:  very  pleasant,  O  felt  a  unit. 

2nd:  element  of  surprise  gives  pleasure. 
O  No.    5:      1st:  pleasant,  O  felt  a  unit. 

2nd:  interested,  O  felt  unitary  pulses. 
O  No.    6:      1st:  unpleasant,  O  felt  no  pulse. 

2nd:  confused,  O  felt  no  pulse. 
O  No.    7:      1st:  pleasant,  O  felt  a  unit. 

2nd:  pleasant. 
O  No.    8:       1st:  indifferent,  O  felt  no  unit. 

2nd:  pleasant,  felt  a  unit. 
O  No.    9:      1st:  unpleasant,  O  felt  no  unit. 

2nd:  more  pleasant,  O  felt  unitary  pulses. 
O  No.  10:      1st:  interesting  because  of  " acceleration,"  unit  vague. 

2nd:  more  interesting  because  of  "variety,"  O  felt  two 

units. 
O  No.  11:      1st:  pleasant,  O  felt  unitary  pulses. 

2nd:  more  interesting,  O  still  felt  the  unitary  pulses. 
O  No.  12:      1st:  interesting,  unit  vague. 

2nd:  interesting,  O  felt  unitary  pulses. 

Eight  of  the  O's  found  the  rhythm  of  the  passage  to  some 
extent  pleasant  on  the  first  hearing;    all  of  the  O's,  with  the 


174  APPENDIX  HI 

exception  of  0  No.  6,  found  it  pleasant  on  a  second  hearing.  Six 
of  them  felt  unitary  pulses  as  the  underlying  temporal  basis 
for  the  series  of  beats. 

XXXII.  Unitary  pulses:  (as  a  form  of  motor  reaction) 

The  following  O's  reported  the  recurrence  of  groups  in  a  ten- 
second  exercise  of  their  "most  natural"  motor  reaction: 

O  No.  1 :  complicated  groups. 
O's  No.  2,  4,  8 :  groups  of  fours. 
O's  No.  10  and  12 :  groups  of  fours. 

The  following  felt  unitary  pulses: 

O's  No.  3,  6,  6,  7,  9,  and  11. 

In  other  words,  six  felt  groups  and  six  felt  unitary  pulses.  O's 
were  asked  to  take  their  "favorite"  type  of  motor  reaction  and 
continue  it  "at  a  rate  which  seems  pleasant"  to  them.  Those  who 
deny  that  the  pleasant  experience  of  O's  No.  3,  6,  6,  7,  9,  and  11 
is  "rhythmic"  will  have  to  invent  new  terms  to  cover  the  case. 
As  it  is,  there  is  little  room  for  attacking  Lanier's  statement  that 
there  is  "rhythm"  in  a  recurring  temporal  series,  whether  the  unit 
be  grouped  or  not  by  the  superimposition  of  accents.  The  real 
facts  about  such  a  series  of  unitary  pulses  have  been  stated  before. 
No  series  can  exist  without  some  element  of  contrast,  since  we 
cannot  become  conscious  of  recurrence  until  cessation  has  occurred. 
The  very  word  pulse  implies  gradation  of  intensity.  What  we  mean 
by  unitary  pulses,  however,  is  that  we  do  not  consciously  separate 
this  gradation  into  clear-cut  segments,  labelled  "one"  and  "two," 
or  "one,  two,  three,"  etc.  When  we  group  these  pulses  into  two's 
and  three's,  we  have  changed  the  smooth  up-and-down  pulse  curve 
into  a  more  angular  progression,  with  two  or  more  well-defined 
steps  for  each  dip  of  the  line.  The  individual  steps  can  be  in  them- 
selves either  smooth  unitary  pulses,  or  be  redivided  into  recogniz- 
able, smaller  steps. 

XXXIII.  Unitary  music:  (second  test) 

The  O's  pass  judgment  upon  the  rhythm  of  a  second  passage 
from  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott. 

Results: 

O  No.    1:    1st  hearing:  pleasant,  the  arrangement  of  beats  in 

groups  of  varying  size  confused  the 

unit  to  some  extent. 
2nd  hearing:  pleasant,  unit  no  longer  confused  by  the 

group  changes. 


EXPERIMENTAL  DATA  175 

O  No.    2:     1st:    unpleasant,  unit  confused. 

2nd:  more  interesting,  unit  felt. 
O  No.    3:     1st:    pleasant,  unit  felt. 

2nd:  indifferent,  unit  lost. 
0  No.    4:     1st:    pleasant,  unit  felt. 

2nd:  pleasant,  unit  felt. 
0  No.    5:     1st:    pleasant,  vague  unit  felt. 

2nd:  pleasant,  vague  unit  felt. 
O  No.    6:     1st:    pleasant,  unitary  pulses  felt. 

2nd:  more  pleasant,  unit  felt. 
O  No.    7:     1st:    pleasant,  unit  felt. 

2nd:  pleasant,  unit  felt. 
O  No.    8:     1st:    interesting,  vague  unit  felt. 

2nd:  interesting,  unit  felt,     (objected  to  variety  of 

groups) 
0  No.    9:     1st:    indifferent,  unit  felt. 

2nd:  indifferent,  unit  felt,     (objected  to  variety  of 

groups) 
O  No.  10:     1st:    (statement  of  affection  omitted),  unit  felt. 

2nd:  (statement  of  affection  omitted),  unit  felt. 
O  No.  11 :     (pleasant,  unit  felt)  data  incomplete. 

2nd:  pleasant,  unit  felt. 
O  No.  12:     1st:  indifferent,  unit  vague. 

2nd:  pleasant,  unit  vague. 

Eight  of  the  O's  found  the  rhythm  of  the  passage  either  pleas- 
ant or  "interesting"  on  the  first  hearing;  nine  found  it  pleasant-  or 
interesting  on  the  second  hearing.  On  the  first  hearing  O  No.  2  found 
it  unpleasant.  O's  No.  3  and  9  found  it  indifferent  on  the  second 
hearing,  but  no  one  found  it  unpleasant. 

XXXIV.  Factors  in  organizing  drum-beat  series: 

Each  of  the  six  organizing  factors,  or  "suppositions"  presented 
to  the  observers,  were  graded  by  them  with  units  (3,  2, 1,  0),  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  that  they  "assist  or  do  not  assist"  in  explaining, 
or  rendering  less  "puzzling,"  elusive  impressions  or  rhythm  in 
prose-beats  such  as  those  in  Series  1  (Walter  Pater).  3  means 
"very  much  assistance";  2,  "considerable  assistance";  1,  "a  small 
amount  of  assistance";  0,  "none." 
Hypothetical  factors: 

1.  An  elastic  time-unit,  grouped  throughout  in  two's,  or  through- 
out in  three's,  etc. 

2.  An  elastic  unit,  grouped  in  stretches  of  some  one  smaller  group, 


176  APPENDIX  III 

but  capable  of  changing  from  a  stretch  of  two's  to  a  stretch  of 
three's,  etc. 

3.  The  possibilities  of  syncopation,  as  a  means  of  correlating  seem- 
ingly irregular  beats  with  an  under-unit  of  time. 

4.  The  possibilities  of  dividing  the  fundamental  time-intervals 
into  smaller  intervals,  but  quite  spontaneously  (as  occurred  in 
the  first  passage  from  the  music  of  Cyril  Scott)  —  not  accord- 
ing to  a  scheme  that  could  be  anticipated. 

5.  Elastic  unitary  pulses  (as  occurred  in  both  passages  from  Cyril 
Scott),   with  the  added  possibility,   evidently  in  the  second 
passage,  of  grouping  the  pulses  in  clusters  of  constantly  varying 
size. 

6.  The  imposition  of  a  humming  tune  upon  the  series. 

The  grades  for  the  six  organizing  factors,  in  their  degree  of 
helpfulness,  are  as  follows: 


O's  No. 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

Factor  1: 

2 

1 

1 

2 

2 

3 

2 

3 

1 

2 

2  =  21  units 

2: 

2 

3 

0 

0 

0 

3 

0 

2 

1 

3 

1  =  15 

3: 

1 

0 

2 

1 

0 

3 

1 

1 

0 

1 

3  =  13 

4: 

1 

2 

0 

3 

2 

3 

2 

2 

1 

2 

2  =  20 

5: 

2 

3 

3 

0 

2 

3 

0 

2 

0 

1 

1  =  17 

6: 

3 

3 

3 

0 

3 

3 

1 

2 

0 

0 

2-20 

11  12    9    6    9  18    6  12      3       9     11 

The  maximum  possibility  is  18  units  of  assistance  (roughly 
estimated). 

Arrangement  of  O's  in  relative  order,  according  to  gross  amount 
of  assistance,  reported  as  obtainable  from  the  suppositions: 

O  No.        7 :  100%  of  the  maximum  (18) 

3,    9:  67 

2,12:  61 

4,6,11:  50 

6,    8:  33 

10:  17 

Arrangement  of  the  six  factors  in  relative  order,  according  to 
the  total  number  of  units  assigned  to  each  (out  of  a  possible  33) : 

Factor      1:  64%  of  the  maximum  (33) 

4, 6:  61 

5:  52 

2:  45 

3:  39 


EXPERIMENTAL   DATAJ  177 

An  elastic  unit  (factor  1),  accelerating  and  retarding,  but  grouped 
consistently,  was  judged  by  all  the  observers,  without  exception, 
to  be  of  more  or  less  assistance  in  the  subjective  organization  of 
prose-beats.  Spontaneous  substitution  (factor  4)  and  tune-hum- 
ming (factor  6)  were  very  close  to  it  in  value.  No.  10  graded  syn- 
copation (factor  3)  zero,  as  might  have  been  expected.  So  also, 
one  or  two  others  who  would  be  classified  as  passively  rhythmic. 
No.  7  and  No.  12,  both  of  whom  may  be  regarded  as,  at  any  rate, 
not  passive,  gave  it  the  highest  grade.  All  the  factors,  including 
unitary  pulses,  figure  prominently  in  the  experiences  of  No.  7. 

Nothing  would  be  more  misleading  than  to  put  too  general  an 
interpretation  upon  the  data  listed  in  this  appendix.  The  tables 
must  be  regarded  simply  as  the  recorded  results  for  twelve  observ- 
ers, superficially  tested,  with  regard  to  a  few  of  the  complex  proc- 
esses which  contribute  to  rhythmic  experience.  Suggestion,  no 
doubt,  influenced  many  of  the  judgments  announced.  Some  of 
the  tests  for  individual  difference,  as,  for  instance,  the  one  for 
accuracy  in  reproducing  an  accelerating  series  of  intervals  (Ap- 
pendix III,  section  vii,  7)  indicate  that  in  some  particulars,  at  least, 
the  errors  of  the  twelve  observers  represent  a  distribution  abnor- 
mally ideal  for  so  limited  a  group.  It  approaches  the  kind  of  dis- 
tribution that  the  old-time  theorists  took  pleasure  in  claiming  for 
humanity  at  large.  But  this  particular  grouping  may  easily  be  re- 
garded as  a  matter  of  coincidence.  In  some  tests,  in  fact,  the  devia- 
tions have  completely  failed  to  follow  the  "normal"  arrangement, 
crowding  together  first  at  one  extreme,  and  then  at  the  other.  The 
experimenter  feels,  however,  that  the  observers,  as  a  whole,  were 
a  very  satisfactory  lot.  They  appear  to  be,  at  any  rate,  more 
representative,  in  certain  points  of  individual  difference,  than  one 
usually  dares  to  hope  for  in  so  small  a  sampling. 


ABBREVIATIONS 

I.  In    "Experimental   Procedure"  and   "Experimental   Data"    (Ap- 

pendices II  and  III) : 
E  «-  the  experimenter 

O  =  the  observer  or  subject  upon  whom  the  experiment  is  made 
tsm  =  the  time-sense  machine 
kymo  =  kymograph 
metr  =  metronome 

AVE  =  Average  Variable  Error    (see  p.  131) 
GCE  =  Gross  Constant  Error  (see  p.  131) 
uas  =»  unit-accuracy  —  simple 
GV  -  Grading  Value,  etc.,  etc.    (see  p.  131  ff.) 

II.  In  "Bibliography"  and  notes  throughout  the  text: 
Abh.  =  Abhandlung  N.  S.  =»  New  Series 

Am.  =  American  Norm.  =  Normale 
Angew.  =  angewandt                    -»        Path.  -  Pathologique 

Arch.  =  Archiv  or  Archives  Phil.  =  Philosophy,  etc. 

Assoc.  =  Association  Psy.  =  Psychology,  etc. 

Ber.  =«  Bericht  Rep.  =  Report 

d.  =  der,  die,  das,  etc.  Rev.  =  Review 

Ges.  =  Gesellschaft  Ser.  =  Series 

Inter.  =  International,  etc.  St.  =  Studies,  Studien 

J.  =  Journal  Trans.  =  Transactions 

Kl.  =  Klasse  u.  =  und 

kon.  =  koniglich  Wiss.  =  Wissenschaft 

Mod.  =-  Modern  z.  =  zur,  zum 

Monog.  =  Monograph  Zeitsch.  =  Zeitschrift 


179 


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INDEX 


Accelerando,  52,  68 

Accelerating  and  retarding  units, 

xxii,  3,  10,  64,  89 
Acceleration,  xx,  3,  10,  11,  63,  66, 

94,  165,  166 

Acceleration  experiment,  50,  54  ff., 

95,  105,    106,    111,    112,    116, 
133  ff. 

Accent,  4,  8,  13,  23,  31,  33,  36, 
37,  40,  42,  57,  68,  75,  78,  79, 
82,93 

Adjustment,  66,  67,  95 

Aggressively  rhythmic  observers, 
xix,  xx,  16,  61,  84,  88,  94,  101 

"Agogic  accent,"  51,  52,  61,  167 

Alliterative  verse,  21,  38,  84,  85 

American  Indians,  xix,  xxi,  6 

Andrews,  48 

Anglo-Saxon  charters,  96 

Anglo-Saxon  verse,  22,  38,  84,  85 

Apaches,  89 

Apparatus,  103  ff. 

Appropriate  rhythm,  xxii,  66,  91, 

96,  97,  100,  101,  154  ff. 
Aristotle,  ix,  39 
Artifice,  98 

Artistic  adjustment,  97 
Attention,  xix,  18,  22,  42,  69,  86, 

89 
Auditory  imagery,  10,  49,  94,  95, 

109,  131,  151 

"Authorized  Version,"  The,  98 
Automatic  syncopation,  12,  65,  99 
Automatism,  23,  76,  99 
Average  Variable  Error,  50,  60, 

131 


Balance,  1,  80,  82,  84,  85,  93 
Beethoven,  66,  92 
Benussi,  34,  163-165 
Binet  and  Courtier,  19 
Binet  and  Simon,  87 
Bingham,  24 
Boas,  xix,  89 
Body-balance,  82 
Body-rhythm,  24,  82 
Bohme,  28 
Bolton,  17,  48 
Breath-phenomena,  4,  18,  65,  67, 

118,  148,  158,  159 
Breath-rate,  65,  109,  130 
Brown,  W.,  30,  31 
Browne,  Sir  T.,  29 
Browning,  77 
Briicke,  17 
Biicher,  27 

Caprice,  97 

Centroids,  25 

Chopin,  2,  45,  51,  92,  123,  168-170 

"Christabel,"  26 

Cicero,  ix 

Climax,  57 

Coincidence  the  criterion  of  verse 

experience,  75,  91,  98 
Coleridge,  26 

Complex  coordination,  113,  144  ff. 
Coordination,  4,  15,  77,  113 
Coordination  theory,  xxiii,  13  ff., 

91 

Correlations,  148,  149 
Criterion  of  prose  experience,  75, 

91,98 


189 


190  INDEX 

Criterion  of  verse  experience,  75,  Gordon,  K.,  82 

91,  98  Grammatical  accent,  13,  79,  93,  96 

Curtis,  N.,  xxi  Gross  Constant  Error,  50,  60,  131 

Grouping,  72,  78,  89,  90,  93,  94,  98 

Dancing,  xxii,  37  Guest,  19,  22 

Data,  139  ff.  Gummere,  19,  22 
De  Quincey,  117,  152,  153,  156 

"Development"  of  prose  rhythm,  Haphazard   arrangements,    2,    3, 

39,  96  63,  95 

Dickens,  14  Haphazard  series  subjectively  or- 
Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  ix,  39          ganized,  xxii,  73,  84,  88,  90,  94 

Drozynski,  40  Harmony  memory,  114,  150 

Drum-beat  rhythm,  2,  7,  15,  90,  Hopi  Indian,  the,  86,  87 

117,  152  ff.  Hurst  and  McKay,  19,  20 

Ease,  66,  84,  90,  97,  100,  154  ff .  Illusions,  13,  33,  34 

East  Indian  music,  6,  72  Imagery  tests,  109,  131 

Economy,  97  Imitative  facility,  61 

Elastic  units,  xx,  xxii,  3,  10,  47,  Indian's  sense  of  rhythm,  the,  xix, 

61,  63-65, 71, 87,  89, 95, 175-177          7,  87 

Elman,  Mischa,  48  Indifference  point  in  judgments  of 
Elusive  impressions  of  rhythm,  14,          time,  23,  32,  165 

62,  63,  81,  91,  168,  175  Individual  difference,  ix,  10,  48, 
Errors  of  resonance,  25  54,  94,  95,  129  ff . 
Experimental  data,  129  ff.  Intensity  memory,  116,  151,  152 
Experimental  procedure,  107  ff .  Intervals,  empty  and  filled,  33,  34, 

164,  165 

Felicity  of  phrase  mistaken  for  Irregular  movements,  32 

rhythm,  81,  97  Isocrates,  39 
Filled  intervals,  33,  34,  164,  165 

Fillmore,  7  James,   Henry,  2,   29,   123,   168, 
Fitness,  84,  91,  97,  100,  154  ff.  169,  170 

Five's  and  seven's,  reaction  to,  James,  William,  16 

120,  160,  161 

Five-seven  rhythm,  5,  6,  7,  95,  161  Kinsesthesis,  x,  40,  71.    See  Motor 
Folk-dancing,  xxii  reaction 

Free  verse,  74  ff .,  98  Kwakiutl  Indians,  xix,  89 

"Gadya"  prose,  79  Laboratories  described,  103  ff. 

"General  Trend"  in  swing  experi-  Landry,  36 

ment,  133  ff.  Lanier,  19,  22,  43,  174 

Goethe,  29  Lidell,  42 


INDEX 


191 


Lipsky,  29 

Lowell,  Miss  Amy,  xii,  80 

MacDougall,  23 

Masters,  79 

Marbe,  29 

Melody  in  speech,  21,  96.     See 

Pitch 

Memory,  66,  82 
Memory     tests,     114-116,     119, 

133  ff.,  140-142,  149-152,  159 
Metre,  xx,  66,  67,  83,  100 
Meumann,  3,  8,  10,  17  ff.,  23,  45, 

49 

Meyer,  19 
Miller,  D.  C.,  104 
Miner,  24 
Mistaken     ideas     about     prose 

rhythm,  81,  97 
Miyaki,  3,  27 
Mood,  66,  67,  69,  73 
Motor  imagery,  94,  95,  109,  131 
Motor  reaction,  x,  3,  4,  14,  15, 

40,  71,  100,  160,  161 
Motor  rhythm,  19 
Motor  theory  for  melody,  24 
Motor  theory  of  rhythm,  24 
Miiller,  106,  131 
Muscular  contractions  hi  rhythm, 

24,  31,  65,  89 

Muscidus  tensor  tympani,  31,  65 
Music,  xxi,  2,  45,  51,  66,  72,  73, 

92,    101,    123,    127,    167-170, 

173-175 

Musical  enjoyment,  41 
Musical  "swing,"  122,  167 
Music,  modern,  44 
Music,  unitary  pulses  in,  72,  127, 

173-175 

Newman,  Cardinal,  117,  152,  153, 

156 
New  Standard,  13  ff. 


Observer  No.  1,  2,  12,  59,  60,  62, 
65,  94,  130-167,  173,  174 

Observer  No.  7,  2,  7,  14,  63,  64, 
89,  90,  94,  130-177 

Observer  No.  10,  10,  14,  49,  59, 
60,  94,  130-177 

Observer  No.  12,  63,  90,  130-177 

Observers  classified,  130-177 

Observers,  list  of,  130 

Occult  balance,  1,  8,  82,  85,  86,  93 

Old  English  verse,  22,  38,  84,  85 

Omahas,  7 

Organizing  factors,  94,  128,  175  ff. 

Origin  of  music,  32 
.  Origin  of  poetry,  34 

Origin  of  tune-images,  31 

Passively  rhythmic  observers,  16, 

88,  94,  95,  100 
Pater,  2,  62,  63,  66,  67,  70,  73,  80, 

99,  117,  123,  153,  156 
Patterns  of  time  and  stress,  66,  67, 

75,86 
Phonograph    experiment,    2,    12, 

122,  168 
Photographs  of  speech,  x,  55,  56, 

103,  104,  119,  140  ff. 
Pitch,  40,  42,  69,  93,  96 
Pitch  memory,  49,  60,  114,  149, 

150 

Pitch  patterns,  75,  86 
Poe,  28 

Poetic  prose,  ix,  77,  79,  98 
"Possibility"  scanning,  96,   118, 

157,  158 

Precision,  50,  60 
Primitive  music,  6,  7 
Primitive  rhythmic  sense,  6,  27 
Progressive  movement,  51,  53,  56, 

57,60 
Prose  experience  explained,   xxii 

note,  75,  91,  98 


192 


INDEX 


Prose  intervals  objectively  hap- 
hazard, 90 
Prose  rhythm,  xxii,  14,  37,  38,  72, 

75,  81,  90,  91,  97 
Puffer,  4,  8,  21,  82 
Pulse-consciousness,  118,  158 
Pulse-rate,  64,  65,  109,  130 
Pulses,    unitary.      See     Unitary 
pulses 

Questionnaires,  49,  108,  124,  127, 
130, 170,  172 

"Rag-time,"  4,  68 

Ratan  Devi,  72,  73 

Regnaud,  79 

"Relativity  Conditions,"  134  ff. 

Rhetoric,  98 

Rhythm,  17,  18,  24,  25,  31,  36, 

88,  89,  etc. 

Rhythmic  experience  x,  69  ff.,  91 
Rhythmic  tunes,  xx,  3,  5,  6,  11, 

12,   14,  52,  62  ff.,  75,  88,  95, 

99,  101,  176,  177 
Rhythm  of  thought,  17,  42,  87,  92 
Rhythm  of  work,  27,  32 
Ribot,  40 
Riemann,  51,  167 
Ritardando,  52,  68 
Ruckmich,  x,  40,  41,  49 
Ruskin,  14,  29 

Saint-Saens,  50 

Saintsbury,  ix,  39 

Sanf  ord  and  Triplett,  26 

Sanskrit  prose,  79 

Saran,  36 

Sargent,  48 

Scanning,  14,  96,  100,  158 

Schedules,  2,  63,  64,  125  ff.,  170  ff. 

Schipper,  xi,  37,  38,  85 

Schumann,  xxi,  66,  72,  92 


Scott,  Cyril,  44,  72,  73,  92,  127, 

173,  174,  176 
Scripture,  3,  25,  26,  48 
Seashore,  42,  48,  123 
Secondary  rhythm,  98 
Sense  of  rhythm,  2,  22,  48,  49,  91 
Sense  of  swing,  xx,  47-61,  94 
Sense  of  tune,  14,  16,  60 
Seven-five  syncopation,   5,  6,  7, 

95,  161 

Shakespeare,  79 
Shaw  and  Wrinch,  20 
Sievers,  ix,  xi,  9,  20,  21,  37,  84, 

85,  96,  105 
Smith,  M.  K.,  18,  27 
Sound-photographs,  x,  55,  56,  93, 

103,  104,  119,  140  ff.,  159 
Speech-melody,  21,  96 
Spontaneity,  66,  84,  90,  97,  100 
Spontaneous  substitution,  10,  70, 

92,  94,  100,  176,  177 
Sprachmelodie,  21,  96 
Sprechtakte,  20 
Squire,  xi,  27-29,  37,  44 
Standards,  84,  90,  91,  97 
Steadiness,  50,  60 
Steenstrup,  xxii 
Stetson,  24,  106 
"Stressers,"  xxi,  77,  81  ff.,  92,  98, 

99 
Stress-patterns,  14,  67,  75,  76,  79, 

83,  86,  95,  96  note,  100 
Subjective  grouping,  13,  90,  94, 

110 

Subjective  rhythm  test,  110,  132 
Subjective  time,  64,  68,  88 
Subjective  units,  47,  64,  68,  69 
Substitution,  xxui  note,  3,  5,  7,  8, 

14,  66,  92,  100,  176,  177 
Substitutional  symmetry,  8,  86,  93 
Subtlety,  60,  78,  95 
Swing,  xx,  94,  97,  122,  162  f 


INDEX 


193 


Syllables,  25,  66,  75,  93 

Symmetry,  78,  85,  98 

Syncopation,  xx  note,  3,  4,  5,  9, 
11,  12,  14,  65,  66,  67,  70,  77, 
92,  94,  95,  100,  101,  113,  119, 
120  ff.,  143,  144,  159-161,  176, 
177 

Syncopation  tests,  113,  119  ff., 
143,  144,  159-161 

Systems  of  grading  always  danger- 
ous, 143 

Tapping,  65,  70,  97,  99,  101,  148, 

167 
"Temple  of  Memphis."    See  Cyril 

Scott 

Tempo,  9,  18,  61 
Tempo  rubato,  50-52,  61 
Tennyson,  77 

Tension-summits,  87,  89,  93 
Thomson,  42,  43 
Thorndike,  E.  L.,  41 
Thought-rhythm,  17,  42,  87,  92 
Time-basis  for  rhythm,  22,  90 
"Timers,"  66,  74,  75,  80,  87,  89- 

91,  98,  101 

Time-patterns,  66,  75,  86 
Time-sense,  31,  98,  99,  101 
Titchener,  41 
Tom-tom,  73,  89 
Tone-color,  14,  66,  67,  69,  73,  75, 

78,  81,  82,  93,  97,  99 
Tone-color  mistaken  for  rhythm, 

81,97 
"Traumerei,"  xxi,  72,  73 


Two-beat  theory  for  Old  English 

verse,  22,  38 
Types,  xix  note 

Under-units,  66 

Unit-accuracy,  94, 110, 131, 144  ff. 
Unitary  music,  127,  173-175 
Unitary  pulses,  xx,  xxii,  3,  8,  44, 
47,  65,  69,  71,  87,  127,  173,  174 
Unit  of  time,  20 

Vance,  42 

Variable  Error,  131 

Velocity,  51,  53,  61 

Verse,  66,  75,  78  note,  82,  83,  91 

Verse  experience  explained,  75,  91, 

98 

Versification,  36,  38,  84,  85 
Vers  libre,  74  ff.,  98 
Verrier,  34-36 
Visual  imagery,  109,  131 
Visual  rhythm,  24 
Vocal  step,  20,  35 
Voice-photographs,  55,    56,    103, 

104,  119,  140  ff. 
Vowel-quality    memory,    10,    49, 

115,  151 

Walking-rate,  11,  12,  31,  50,  64, 

113,  148 

Wallin,  22,  77,  91 
Weight,  36,  37,  75,  86,  96 
Weld,  41,  42 
Woodrow,  40 
Wundt,  1,  3,  8,  10,  13,  31-34,  46, 

51,  62,  90,  149 


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